DEDICATED CDR POLICY OFFICES

Government can create a dedicated CDR policy office, or give a permanent team within an existing ministry responsibility for developing and coordinating removal policy. The team would identify problems that involve several departments, prepare options and get the responsible officials to resolve them. For example, a project may need an answer on whether it can sell removal credits while receiving public funding, involving both climate and finance authorities. A staffed office gives that question a team responsible for taking it through to a decision. It needs a budget, access to relevant information and a senior official or minister who can resolve disagreements. This entry covers policy development and coordination; administering grants and contracts belongs to the separate programme-delivery lever.

Government should start with the decisions that currently stall or fall between departments and/or agencies, then define the office's responsibilities around them. A team focused only on geological storage may overlook land-based or marine CDR, while an overly broad remit may duplicate work already assigned elsewhere. Its founding instructions should identify the methods covered, the information departments must provide and who settles disagreements. Ministers and independent regulators retain their legal powers. The office can sit within an existing ministry, provided staff have enough time and authority for the CDR role. Each priority should have a responsible department and deadline. Staff continuity, external scrutiny and conflict-of-interest rules help the office retain expertise without favouring particular developers.

A dedicated office can identify conflicting rules before they delay projects and bring the right departments together to resolve them. It could, for example, help finance and climate officials agree how private credit sales affect a project's public support. A permanent team can also retain knowledge of removal methods and relevant law when staff elsewhere change jobs. Developers and communities gain a consistent contact for questions that cross departmental boundaries. These improvements make policy development more reliable. Investment and demand still depend on the funding, purchasing and regulatory decisions that government subsequently makes.

If the office can arrange meetings but cannot obtain decisions, it may add another stage to a potentially already slow process. Its location within government can also shape which methods receive attention, particularly if staff mainly know one sector. A small team may lose essential knowledge when key people leave. Close relationships with developers can bias advice, while poorly defined responsibilities can create disputes with regulators and programme administrators. The office therefore needs clear authority to request information and bring unresolved issues to senior officials, alongside independent scrutiny of its advice.

Evaluation should examine whether the office helps government resolve issues that previously stalled, whether agreed actions are completed and whether departments give consistent answers. Useful indicators include response times, unresolved disputes and delivery against the work programme. Staff vacancies and turnover can reveal whether the team can sustain its responsibilities. Periodic independent review should assess which CDR methods receive insufficient attention and where the office duplicates other bodies, then recommend changes to its staffing, responsibilities or position within government.

Departments and regulators should agree who decides each issue, what information they will share and how disagreements reach senior officials. Finance officials assess affordability; scientific and carbon-accounting experts test whether proposals would deliver credible removals. Developers, land managers, workers and communities should explain where current rules create problems in practice. Independent researchers and civil-society organisations should have a direct route to challenge the office's advice, alongside the access provided to project developers.

National governments and supranational bodies can assign staff to coordinate CDR policy across their departments. Regional, state and municipal administrations can do the same for matters they control, such as land use, waste, local infrastructure and purchasing.