Climate neutrality will require negative emissions; beyond mid-century, net- negative emissions will become an obligation. The climate-neutral scenarios of the in-depth analysis underpinning the communication “A clean planet for all” show that the EU will have to rely on a substantial amount of carbon removals to reach climate neutrality by 2050 and become a net GHG remover thereafter. Both nature-based and technological solutions are required. Their mix is scenario-dependent. Many different technologies exist at different levels of maturity, requiring government intervention at various stages.
The objective of the project is to kick-off the discussion on incentives for technological and hybrid carbon removals to advance technology development in this crucial area.
Focus will be the analysis on different carbon removal technologies, e.g. BECCS, biochar, enhanced weathering, DACCS, or carbon mineralization, etc. The starting point will be a discussion on the merits of a formal separation of emission reductions and removals targets in the context of the proposed EU-wide certification scheme for removals.
The main deliverable will be a comprehensive report taking stock of incentives to promote negative emissions globally (including the EU and its member states). This Main Report will include a section on the ‘emerging EU policy framework’, thereby identifying all possible areas (R&D, innovation funding, reducing barriers, e.g. cross-border barriers, regulation such as mandates, taxation etc.).
The ‘Main Report’ will be accompanied by a ‘Scoping Paper’, a shorter policy- oriented ‘agenda-setting’ report as well as outreach activities.
