Michael Arthurs is a carbon removal and industrial decarbonisation specialist with more than twenty-five years of experience leading energy, resources, agriculture, and sustainability projects across five continents. He is CEO and Co-Founder of Diamond A Group and serves as Projects Director for the EVOKE led multi-country biochar carbon removal project, the carbon and revenue engine of the Sub-Sahel Ecovillage Development Project. That project converts invasive woody vegetation into biochar using mobile kilns, restoring soil fertility and water retention while generating independently verified carbon removal credits, with revenue funding a connected belt of Great Green Farm Ecovillages delivering food security, water security, dignified work, and community stability. In that capacity he leads programme design, business development, country entry strategy, and operational planning across sub-Saharan Africa and select nations globally, spanning regulatory and host government engagement, logistics and field operations, commercial and contractual structuring, carbon methodology and credit delivery, and the sustainability and community development outcomes the ecovillage model is built to achieve.
Michael has built the underlying country screening and prioritisation frameworks for this work, including a fifty-four country assessment of Article 6 readiness covering bilateral agreements, national carbon regulation, and buyer programmes, and a continental crop and feedstock calendar mapping planting, harvest, and residue availability windows against invasive and encroachment biomass streams.
He is also Country Mission Director for the UAE Carbon Removal Breakthrough Coalition at Bridge Institute, a UK charity applying the Spiral Breakthrough methodology to systemic climate challenges. He co-founded the coalition and led the United Arab Emirates’ first national evaluation of carbon dioxide removal methodologies and governance, defining domestic and international solution pathways together with carbon market recommendations. He co-leads development of the Atmosphere Restoration Centre, a proposed international carbon removal agency to be headquartered in the United Arab Emirates, and contributes to a global programme of national carbon removal workshops feeding recommendations toward the Action Agenda for Carbon Removal at COP31 in Antalya and the establishment of an international carbon removal institution by COP32 in Addis Ababa. In parallel he is developing carbon dioxide removal solutions in Canada, including zero carbon lime facility feasibility work and carbon removal hubs.
Michael’s agricultural background begins on the land. He was raised on a multi-generational family farm in southern Alberta, operated organically and with a long-standing conservation ethic, and that grounding in soil health, water, and land stewardship continues to shape how he approaches restoration and food security work today. Professionally, his agricultural and biotechnology experience spans commercial, board, and advisory roles across three continents. He served as Regional Business Development Director for the Middle East and Africa with a multinational biotechnology firm, with responsibility for all business and corporate development across three global business units covering animal health, sustainable agriculture, and green energy and future farming, including regional strategy, market analysis, customer relations, sustainability positioning, investments, acquisitions, and joint ventures. He has held board positions in sustainable farming and land conservation in Canada, in agriculture, sustainability, and economic growth ventures across Africa and the Middle East, and in food, commodity, agriculture, and aquaculture businesses in China, and earlier provided trade, investment, and feasibility services for commodity and joint venture projects from Beijing.
Prior to his work in carbon removal, Michael held senior commercial, project, and business development roles across international oil and gas. He served as Commercial Manager and Advisor to a major Middle East national oil company, jointly overseeing corporate strategy and the consolidation of more than four hundred contracts across four blocks with a value exceeding US$3 billion. He co-led the business development and Canadian market entry of a US$9 billion United States midstream company, covering North American assets and marine ports. With one of Canada’s largest oil and gas producers he served as Deputy Project Manager on a US$400 million per year multi-TCF shale gas development in northeast British Columbia, as Project Advisor and frac water lead on a US$200 million per year shale gas programme in Colombia, and earlier as Law and Contracts Analyst on that producer’s Middle East light oil operation, supporting 120,000 barrels per day across more than three hundred contracts valued at US$1.3 billion. More recently, as Upstream Business and Sustainability Manager with a national gas company in the United Arab Emirates, he developed and implemented carbon capture, utilisation and storage and carbon capture mineralization strategies, structured special purpose vehicles for carbon assets and exploration, and led negotiations with international governments and stakeholders.
His work in the circular economy and industrial water management includes leading the consulting team that evaluated and implemented water handling, water recycling, and field optimisation solutions for Canada’s largest condensate producer, delivering savings of US$150 million in sixteen months, and directing market development for low sulphur marine fuels and low carbon intensity refinery products across western Canada, the United States, and South America. He has held further board and director positions spanning hydrogen and carbon capture, utilisation and storage, listed mining and clean air technology, industrial water recycling, renewables and natural gas to power, First Nations economic development, and the circular economy, including as co-founder and director of a Canadian hydrogen and carbon capture company.
Michael holds an MSc in Environmental Management for Business, Economics and Policy from Cranfield University in the United Kingdom and a Bachelor of Commerce in Petroleum Land Management from the University of Calgary in Canada. He has completed executive coursework in Circular Economy and Sustainability Strategies at the Cambridge Judge Business School and in Energy Within Environmental Constraints at Harvard University, and has held Practitioner status with the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment in the United Kingdom since 2004. His technical and commercial focus spans lime cycle and biochar carbon removal, carbon dioxide removal, carbon capture, utilisation and storage, industrial decarbonisation, sustainable agriculture, and technical solutions for oil and gas and the wider energy sector.
