WITHOUT CARBON REMOVAL THERE IS NO NET-ZERO

There's too much carbon dioxide already polluting the atmosphere and warming our planet. Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is the process that allows us to pull CO₂ out of the atmosphere and store it safely using technological and biological approaches. CDR is the only solution in our climate toolbox that generates negative emissions.

The climate science is clear; based on all the main scenarios, reaching the Paris Agreement goals of limiting global warming to 1.5°C, or even 2°C, will require the massive scale-up of CDR technologies alongside drastic emissions reductions.

Similarly, for the EU to reach climate neutrality by 2050 and become net negative afterwards, it is critical to accelerate our efforts on both emissions reductions and carbon removals. But even with drastic cuts to our emissions, those from hard-to-abate sectors will be particular difficult to cut entirely. We therefore need to employ carbon removal to ensure we reach net-zero and balance out hard to abate emissions. With time, the carbon we remove from the atmosphere will surpass the amount we emit, bringing our total emissions net negative.

There are a range of methods for removing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it. Natural biological solutions naturally remove carbon, but store it less permanently. Other methods are technological and can store carbon for millennia. A wide portfolio of methods will need to be deployed across the EU to reach net-zero.

Carbon removal methods are wide ranging. Currently, most efforts are focused on nature-based methods, leading to imbalanced net-zero targets.

Carbon removal policies must ensure that carbon removal efforts follow the like-for-like principle so that fossil emissions are compensated by geologic removals (geochemical or synthetic) and emissions from the land-use sector from nature and biomass based methods (enhanced ecosystem management and biomass conversion). Doing so would create an equilibrium in accordance with natural carbon cycles.

Only by adhering to the like-for-like principle can we reach a sustainable net-zero.

Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) often gets mixed-up with other carbon management technologies such as carbon capture and storage (CCS) and carbon capture and utilisation (CCU). Although specific CDR methods do require similar infrastructure as CCS technologies, the climate outcomes are very different.

Here are the basics to differentiate between:

CDR – the carbon is pulled from the atmosphere & safely stored = negative emissions

CCS – the carbon is captured just before it is emitted on industrial sites = avoided emissions

CCU – the carbon is turned into valuable products/commodities = avoided emissions (but could still end up in the atmosphere)

CDR is the only approach that tackles historical emissions and will help us achieve net negative.