Europe will need carbon removal to reach net zero by 2050; the science clearly says so, yet there is currently limited funding for research and innovation to scale up these crucial technologies. To fund its net zero goals, the EU has developed a wide range of funding mechanisms, of which Horizon Europe is a central pillar, with €95.5 billion available for research in selected areas for 2021-2027. However, Horizon Europe is dedicated to funding the green transition as a whole, with only a part dedicated to carbon removal. So, we…

Carbon removal will be essential for the EU to reach net zero by mid-century. Yet the EU is failing to realise the potential of these technologies as key tools in the fight against global warming. To make good on the EU’s climate commitments, an ambitious strategy dedicated to promoting and regulating carbon removal technologies is a must.   Carbon dioxide removal (CDR), the umbrella term for different technologies that remove CO2 from the atmosphere and store the removed carbon durably. Their crucial role in reaching EU and global climate targets…

Carbon Gap welcomes the Commission’s proposal for a Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA) and committed efforts to strengthen Europe’s net zero ecosystem. The NZIA represents significant advances for the sector, especially for the 8 strategic technologies that have been listed. As the baton passes to the European Parliament and Council, we encourage them to consider the role of carbon removal in the NZIA as a (strategic) net-zero technology, as outlined in the recommendations below.  1. Include carbon dioxide removal (CDR) to deliver climate neutrality   The Act risks missing a critical opportunity…

Last week, the proposed EU Nature Restoration Law narrowly survived a vote to reject it. An amended EU Nature Restoration Law has now been agreed by the European Parliament, which will inform further negotiations with the European Council. The Nature Restoration Law is to biodiversity what the European Climate Law is to climate – it’s that big of a deal. By setting legally binding targets to restore degraded ecosystems, the law takes a holistic approach to mitigating Europe’s entwined climate, biodiversity loss, and land degradation crises. But these watered-down amendments…

The European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) will have a significant effect on the EU’s net zero targets. The first set of ESRS are currently being developed as a delegated act to the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). They aim to set out cross-cutting standards for the disclosure of environmental, social, and governance information in companies’ annual reports. The first of the environmental standards, E1 Climate Change, includes specific requirements around greenhouse gas emissions, net zero targets, net zero claims and carbon removals.  The current draft marks a significant improvement in…

The EU Climate Law requires the European Commission to propose a 2040 climate target by the first half of 2024. In a recent public consultation, the Commission started gathering input from climate and sectoral experts, NGOs and the public to inform its decision process before presenting a concrete proposal. Carbon Gap calls upon the EU to support carbon removal in the 2040 targets.  The 2040 climate targets will be a crucial milestone on the road to climate neutrality to ensure that the EU is on track to achieving this 2050…

The Paris Agreement has been built to shape climate action for the rest of the century, and the market mechanisms that underpin it will be used for decades to come. There are no broadly accepted international accounting rules for carbon removal methods. The decisions taken under Article 6.4 of the agreement, and the methodologies approved under it, are bound to have an outsized impact on voluntary and compliance carbon markets globally. It is crucial to create foundational rules on removals for the Paris Agreement carbon market mechanism and the time…

In 2022, while oil and gas companies reported record profits, Europeans felt the heat of skyrocketing energy bills and their hottest-ever summer. Extensive wildfires, deadly heat waves and severe drought ravaged the continent, jeopardising Europe’s agricultural production and citizens’ physical health. Yet there is no framework for fossil fuel producer responsibility. Never has the widening gap between those profiting from and those paying for the climate catastrophe been so evident. Now, the European Union is taking steps to shift some responsibility for cleaning up the climate mess onto fossil fuel companies with the new proposed…

A major referendum is coming up in Switzerland with the potential to shape Swiss climate law and policy for the foreseeable future. On June 18, the Swiss will vote on a key piece of climate legislation: ​the Federal Act on climate action objectives, innovation and energy security, which would create a legal obligation to use carbon dioxide removal to reach the national climate goals by imposing a greenhouse gas neutrality target by 2050. This Climate Change and Innovation Act, as it is more informally called, is in response to a…

Brussels, 23 March 2023. Yesterday, the European Commission published its legislative proposal on the substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims (‘the Green Claims Directive’), aimed at reducing greenwashing. To make green claims (including climate-related claims) about the environmental footprint of their products, services, and operations, companies will need to prove them by submitting scientific evidence and reliable data to accredited verifiers. Once approved, companies will have to communicate their claims in a clear and transparent manner to consumers. To enforce that, EU Member States will have to set rules…