This is CDR: Carbon Removal's Wrong Turn? A Conversation with Paul Gambill

​On March 17th, Paul Gambill—co-founder of Nori—published a provocative thought piece on his Substack titled Carbon Removal’s Wrong Turn: How Market Design Created Today's Scaling Crisis. The essay has since sparked spirited discussion across the carbon removal ecosystem, raising tough questions about how current market structures may be fundamentally misaligned with the goal of gigatonne-scale climate impact.

​In this session, we sit down with Paul to unpack the core ideas in the piece—why legacy offset frameworks, permanence-first procurement, and precision-obsessed verification may be creating more barriers than benefits—and explore the responses the article has generated in the weeks since. What would a market look like if it were designed first and foremost for atmospheric impact? And what will it take to get there?

​Whether you're working in project development, policy, investing, or just thinking critically about the future of carbon removal, this conversation is not to be missed.

​ABOUT OUR GUEST

​Paul Gambill is an entrepreneur and systems thinker focused on accelerating climate solutions through better market design. He is the founder and former CEO of Nori, one of the first carbon removal marketplaces, and has been working in the carbon removal space since 2015. With a background in software engineering and community organizing, Paul brings a cross-disciplinary approach to addressing complex challenges, often bridging the worlds of technology, policy, and sustainability. His writing on Inevitable & Obvious explores the intersection of climate innovation and systems change, sparking dialogue across the carbon removal community and beyond.