INTERGOVERNMENTAL COOPERATION ON CDR

Governments can establish a continuing programme of work to solve a shared policy or technology problem together. They agree an objective, divide tasks and contribute staff, expertise or funding, with ministers or senior officials reviewing progress. Joint studies, coordinated research programmes and shared policy guidance can then be used by national agencies. Applied to CDR, governments could compare measurement rules, coordinate demonstrations or develop common approaches to buying removals and regulating storage. Pooling this work can help countries gain expertise and learn from each other's projects. Participation and the agreed contributions determine what the cooperation achieves; a joint announcement by itself creates neither domestic regulation nor a funded removal programme.

Members need to agree who may join, whether membership requires specific actions and how work is divided. A shared target is more useful when each government identifies the studies, policy decisions or programme support it will contribute. The coalition should define which activities count towards its goal and distinguish announced projects from financed or operating facilities. An existing ministerial forum can provide staff and continuity, while a new arrangement needs an agreed host, budget and decision process. Members should also decide how scientists, industry and civil society can contribute without replacing governments' responsibility for the commitments.

Joint technical work can spread the cost of comparing removal methods, evaluating safeguards and designing usable policies across several governments. Members can adapt common purchasing or storage rules and learn from one another's demonstrations instead of repeating every study. Smaller countries gain access to expertise and an opportunity to influence emerging practice. Ministerial progress reviews can also expose commitments that have stalled and prompt the responsible ministry to act. These benefits are strongest when the coalition assigns staff and produces outputs that domestic agencies can use, rather than relying on a shared declaration to change policy by itself.

Shared targets can obscure a lack of national action when members have no assigned responsibilities or budget. Project totals can overstate progress if they count early announcements alongside operating facilities. A coalition dominated by fossil-carbon interests may direct most work towards emissions capture while describing the results as progress on removal. Changes of government can also interrupt participation. Overlapping coalitions place additional demands on the same officials, so new meetings and reporting requirements should be justified by work that existing institutions cannot already perform.

Member governments should report their staff and funding contributions, joint outputs and resulting domestic decisions. Project reporting should distinguish announcements, engineering work, investment decisions and operation, with atmospheric removals shown separately. Evaluation should examine whether agencies used the coalition's studies or templates and whether joint research led to funded work. Ministers can use those findings to reassign responsibilities, combine overlapping activities or discontinue work that members are not using.

Member ministries should assign officials and budgets to agreed tasks, while implementing agencies explain which technical or legal questions block domestic action. Scientists can assess methods and distinguish removal from other forms of carbon management. Industry should provide checkable project information, including development status and dependencies. Civil society and affected groups need structured opportunities to scrutinise safeguards and published progress, while governments retain responsibility for the coalition's commitments.

National governments form and implement the coalition, supranational institutions may participate within their mandates, and international platforms organise the shared work. Domestic instruments remain necessary to turn cooperation into spending, rules or projects. Companies and civil society can contribute expertise but do not make the intergovernmental commitment themselves.