Exclusive
Diamond market crash is Africa’s opportunity, not its crisis – M'zée Fula Ngenge
Global natural diamond supply is forecast to fall below 95 million carats this year, the lowest since 1987. For Dr. M'zée Fula Ngenge, chairperson of the African Diamond Council (ADC), this is not a death knell but a clarion call. In an exclusive...
12 october 2026
Tracr passes 5 million rough diamonds milestone as De Beers expands provenance push
De Beers Group's blockchain-enabled traceability platform Tracr reached a significant milestone in 2025, with more than 5 million rough diamonds individually scanned and registered, up from 2.8 million cumulative registrations reported in 2024. The...
28 september 2026
South African diamonds head to Hong Kong: SDT partners with BRINKS for JGW 2026
South Africa’s State Diamond Trader (SDT) has confirmed the country's participation in Jewellery & Gem World Hong Kong (JGW) 2026 through a partnership with BRINKS. SDT marketing and communication manager Tsholofelo Gopolang Tselapedi...
14 september 2026
David Benderly: PermaScribe seeks to put trust mark on diamond table, not just girdle
In this interview with Rough & Polished’s Mathew Nyaungwa, PhotoScribe Technologies president and chief executive David Benderly explains how PermaScribe differs technically from conventional laser inscription, its potential to strengthen security, and...
31 august 2026
The great reset: Paul Zimnisky on supply catharsis, De Beers' bargain and the case for natural diamonds
The natural diamond industry is in the throes of its most profound reset in a generation. Supply is plunging to its lowest level since 1987 and De Beers—once valued at over $9 billion—is reportedly being sold for as little as $1 billion.
Lab-grown...
10 august 2026
Global capacity to capture carbon could go up 6 times by 2030
The amount of CO2 being captured today is 43 million tons, or 0.1 per cent of global emissions. The crucial solution for climate change mitigation might become more accessible by 2030, with carbon capture capacity expected to increase six times, according to new research.
Carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) is a key technology needed to decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors such as petrochemicals and cement and to provide 24/7 clean power through gas plants fitted with capture equipment. The amount of CO2 being captured today is 43 million tons, or 0.1 per cent of global emissions, according to a report by research company BloombergNEF.
Device made for the Moon may aid in carbon sequestration on Earth. If all the likely projects that have been announced come online, there would be 279 million tons of CO2 captured every year by 2030, accounting for 0.6 per cent of today’s emissions. Drastic growth in the market has led to a 44 per cent increase in expected 2030 capacity compared to last year’s outlook, reported 2022 CCUS Market Outlook. However, the world’s capacity for carbon capture is not being deployed fast enough to meet climate goals at the end of the decade despite significant acceleration in the sector in the past two years.
Today, most capture capacity is used to collect carbon dioxide (CO2) from natural gas processing plants and used for enhanced oil recovery, according to the research report. By 2030, most capture capacity will be used for the power sector, for the manufacture of low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia or to abate emissions from industrial sources.
Corporate net zero promises found to be insufficient and relying on cheap offsets. The destination for captured CO2 is also due to change significantly from the status quo, the report suggested. In 2021, some 73 per cent of captured CO2 went to enhanced oil recovery operations.
By 2030, storing CO2 deep underground will overtake oil recovery as the primary destination for CO2, with 66 per cent of it going to dedicated storage sites The destination for captured CO2 is also due to change significantly from the status quo. This change is being driven by legislation that incentivises storage over CO2 utilisation and by projects that aim to use carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a decarbonisation route and must store the CO2 to meet their goals.
Despite rapid growth in capture project announcements, the industry is still far from making a dent in global emissions. In order to be on track for net-zero and less than 2 degrees Celsius of warming by 2050, between one and two billion tons of CO2 would need to be captured in 2030, an order of magnitude higher than current plans.
Aruna Gaitonde, Editor in Chief of the Asian Bureau, Rough&Polished
