The Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture, or YCNCC, was founded in 2021 thanks to a $100 million a gift from the FedEx Corporation. The center seeks to study natural processes (such as rock weathering and carbon uptake by the oceans) to reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. It is a key part of Yale Planetary Solutions, a university-wide initiative that seeks to find novel solutions to environmental problems such as climate change and biodiversity loss. In 2022, Boeing made a $10 million gift to continue supporting its efforts.

Natural carbon capture seeks to study and use existing processes by which the Earth naturally sequesters carbon—through rock weathering, as carbon reacts with certain minerals; through the creation of carbon-rich soils in forests and coastal ecosystems; and via the world’s oceans.

By accelerating some of these processes—including by distributing crushed up basalt on agricultural fields, locally enhancing the alkalinity of the ocean, or restoring mangroves and seagrass beds—we can begin to remove carbon already in the atmosphere. In addition to the reduction of carbon emissions, active removal of carbon from the atmosphere is crucial to avoiding the worst outcomes of climate change.

“We need a portfolio of solutions to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions, including natural carbon capture,” says Indy Burke, Carl W. Knobloch, Jr. Dean of the Yale School of the Environment. “Developing natural solutions for carbon sequestration is an ambitious but realistic strategy. It will have an immense impact on our ability to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide.”