Germany and EU need short-term strategy for CO2 removal ramp-up – think tank

Germany and the EU need a short-term strategy for enabling the necessary ramp-up of carbon dioxide removals (CDR), said the think tank German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in a report.The next German government "could supplement the process for the long-term strategy on negative emissions with a short-term strategy," it said, adding that measures that can be swiftly implemented are essential for scaling up industrial CDR.

Carbon dioxide removal, also called negative emissions, plays an important role in limiting global temperatures to two degrees Celsius or lower, as outlined in the Paris Climate Agreement. Besides the classical focus on reducing emissions, it has become clear that efforts to suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere are crucial for reaching climate neutrality – and net-negative emissions in the years after. Methods of CDR make it possible to remove already emitted carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and store it permanently. Technical methods enable the storage of carbon dioxide inside geological formations for several centuries. By contrast, nature-based removal methods like afforestation have a shorter storing duration of several decades.

The researchers said that to achieve EU negative emission targets, the removal capacity must be increased massively in the years leading up to 2050. This would require a lot of research and development upfront and lower costs on a commercial level. However, “there is a lack of short-term incentive structures for scaling up CDR projects and infrastructure on an industrial scale,” the authors said. They concluded that this creates uncertainties in investments and makes it difficult to make the leap from small-scale innovation prototypes to large-scale implementation projects.

According to the report, the short-term strategy should boost technologies that include the ability to permanently store CO2 and operate within a manageable price range. The report listed various policy instruments, such as flat-rate tax credits for the geological storage of CO2, which are intended to provide investment incentives until a long-term EU market framework provides sufficient incentives of its own. The authors said they see a chance for the EU to play a pioneering role in CDR policy, “particularly in view of developments in the USA – a key driver of CDR policy in the last four years – a vacuum could emerge here.”

The European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change has said it sees negative emissions as an absolutely essential pillar in reaching greenhouse gas neutrality. The EU already took first steps towards a long-term approach with a voluntary certification framework for carbon dioxide removal and carbon farming. The outgoing German government has focused on CDR as part of its planned long-term negative emissions strategy. It remains to be seen how the next government continues the plans.