Google's First Megaton Rock Weathering Deal

Google has bought the first megaton-scale enhanced rock weathering deal, from Terradot. It is their third deal together, after a Frontier purchase in 2024 and what was then the largest bilateral ERW deal.

What makes this one different is that it stacks two pathways. Terradot spreads rock, which takes years to weather, and pairs it with cutting methane from rice in the same fields. The methane covers the gap while the rock does its work, so the project is, in Connor's phrase, net zero warming from the first credit rather than from 2040.

Adrian Wons and Dan Harburg sat down with Connor Sendel, Chief Commercial Officer and part of the founding team at Terradot, at New York Climate Week.

In this conversation: why the deal came together collaboratively rather than through an RFP, how both pathways are measured directly (gas flux for the rice methane, soil sampling for the rock), why ERW pricing looks like a black box to buyers, and the difference between hard costs and the soft costs of project finance and repeated MRV that add no climate impact at all.

Also: why European buyers pay less for the story than American ones, and what compliance markets targeting 250 megatonnes by 2040 mean for a sector delivering its first megaton now.

0:00 The deal in 50 seconds

0:49 Google's first megaton rock weathering deal

1:47 Connor Sendel and what Terradot does

3:10 Was this deal collaborative, or an RFP?

4:32 Do pure-play projects still have a place?

4:57 Why pair rock weathering with rice methane

7:10 What it looks like on the ground

9:08 Why is ERW pricing such a black box?

10:09 ERW economics vs reforestation

12:15 Hard costs, soft costs, and project finance

14:50 Is this a permanence trust in disguise?

15:35 One tonne of durable CDR, fully delivered

17:32 The 12-year methane window and net zero warming

19:04 Where in the world do these projects go?

19:51 Low-cost CDR and compliance markets

21:35 Why European buyers pay less for the story

23:19 250 megatonnes by 2040

25:24 Wrap

Tags

carbon removal, CDR, enhanced rock weathering, ERW, Terradot, Google, rice methane, alternate wetting and drying, superpollutants, Frontier, compliance markets, EU ETS, CRCF, MRV, durable CDR, net zero warming, permanence, carbon markets, New York Climate Week, Senken, Mombak