Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture 2026 Spring Symposium - 7-8 May

[Toby Bryce]

Hello all,

I wanted to share that the agenda and registration are now open for YCNCC's 2026 Spring Symposium (and Fifth Anniversary Celebration) 7-8 May on the Yale Campus in New Haven, CT. The goal of the Symposium is to review and assess progress to date and go-forward prospects and opportunities across the primary CDR pathways (for a non-specialist academic, student, corporate, civil society, and policymaker audience).

We are excited about the program (here and pasted below), and the event is open to all. (In-person and virtual registration options. Please register in-person only if you plan to attend -- and pls keep your registration up-to-date -- as we have a strict capacity limit and expect a full house.)

Best, Toby

​_____________________________________

Toby Bryce

Managing Director

Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture

Yale University

 

https://naturalcarboncapture.yale.edu/

 

Spring 2026 Symposium + Fifth Anniversary Celebration 

CDR Roadmap to 2040 

May 7-8, 2026  |  210 Whitney Ave, New Haven, CT 

 

Thursday, May 7, 2026 

12:00 – 1:00  Registration and Lunch 

1:00 – 1:15  Opening Remarks on YCNCC’s 5th Anniversary  

David Bercovici, YCNCC Founding Co-Director 

1:15 – 2:00  Keynote Talk: A Biospheric Perspective of CDR; Channeling Some of Yale’s Greatest Thinkers 

Steven Hamburg, Chief Scientist, Environmental Defense Fund 

2:00 – 2:30  Invited Talk: State of CDR 

Morgan Edwards, Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin 

2:30 – 3:00  Invited Talk: CDR’s Socio-Political Context 

                                     Giana Amador, Executive Director, Carbon Removal Alliance 

3:00 – 3:30  Coffee 

3:30 – 5:15  Lighting Talks on Co-Drivers 

1. Carbon + Co-Drivers: Healthy Forests Financing? 

Sara Kuebbing, Assistant Professor (incoming), Yale School of the Environment 

2. Enhanced Weathering 

Chris Reinhard, Professor and Georgia Power Chair, Georgia Institute of Technology 

3. Coastal CDR Integrations that Center Public Benefit 

Gabby Kitch, Associate Research Scientist, Yale University 

4. Carbon-Negative Mining: Leveraging Critical Mineral Extraction for Permanent CDR 

Laura Lammers, Founder and CEO, Travertine 

Q&A and Panel Discussion 

5:30 – 7:00  Reception at The Yale Farm 

345 Edwards Street, New Haven CT 

Friday, May 8, 2026 

8:30 – 9:00  Bagels and Coffee 

9:00 – 9:10  Opening Remarks  

             Peter Raymond, YCNCC Co-Director 

9:10 – 10:00  “Fireside Chat” on YCNCC’s 5th Anniversary and What’s Next 

Karen Ellis, Vice President Environmental Affairs & Chief Sustainability Officer, FedEx Corporation with Peter Raymond, YCNCC Co-Director 

10:00 – 10:30  Invited Talk: Negative Emissions in Next-Generation Integrated Models: Gaps, Approaches,  and Why it Matters for Policy 

Andrés Clarens, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Virginia  

10:30 – 11:00  Coffee 

11:00 – 3:30  Vision Talks: How We Achieve CDR at Scale by 2040 

11:00 – 11:30  Achieving the Promise of Natural Climate Solutions in Forests 

Susan Cook-Patton, Lead Reforestation Scientist, The Nature Conservancy 

11:30-12:00  Soil Carbon CDR: Can You Believe What You Cannot See? 

Mark Bradford, Professor of Soils and Ecosystem Ecology, Yale School of the Environment 

12:00 – 1:00  Lunch 

1:00 – 1:30  Biomass Carbon Removal and Storage 

                  Daniel Sanchez, Associate Professor of Cooperative Extension, University of California-Berkeley 

1:30 – 2:00  Enhanced Weathering at Scale Requires Focus on Farmers 

             Noah Planavsky, Professor of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Yale University 

2:00 – 2:30  Open Water: Navigating the Next Twenty Years of Marine CDR 

        Jessica Cross, Earth Scientist 

2:30 – 3:00  Coffee 

3:00 – 3:30  To Infinity... and Beyond? Scaling Direct Air Capture 

Sean McCoy, Associate Professor at the Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary 

 

 

3:30 – 4:25  Panel Discussion: Funding CDR at the Required Scale 

                  Giana Amador, Executive Director, Carbon Removal Alliance 

Vijnan Batchu, Managing Director & Global Head - Center for Carbon Transition, J.P. Morgan 

Patrick McGrath, Program Director, Climate Tech, Schmidt Family Foundation 

[Final Panelist TBC]   

Moderated by Toby Bryce, Managing Director, YCNCC 

 

4:25 – 4:30  Closing Remarks 

Peter Raymond, YCNCC Co-Director