Governments are becoming more involved in carbon dioxide removal (CDR). They are funding research and demonstrations, creating standards and incentives, supporting new markets, building CO2 transport and storage infrastructure, and beginning to incorporate removals into climate policy. But government activity is not necessarily government strategy. And government support for a carbon-removal market is not the same as government accepting responsibility for removing carbon.
Governments & CDR is a monthly review of significant government and intergovernmental action on CDR. It tracks the key policies, strategies and government commitments that are emerging around the world, and also asks what those developments collectively say about governments’ emerging capacity to scale CDR to climate relevant levels.
Latest issues
What we track
Government involvement in CDR takes different forms. We track these developments from three angles:
Market building
Government helps create the conditions in which CDR technologies, businesses and markets can develop and scale.
What this includes: Research, demonstration & innovation; demand & procurement; markets & incentives; rules, standards & MRV; infrastructure & permitting; finance & risk-sharing.
Strategic direction
Government begins connecting individual actions to larger public goals, institutions and long-term plans for CDR.
What this includes: National strategy; subnational strategy; international strategy; targeted alliances & coalitions.
Public responsibility
Government accepts responsibility for ensuring that necessary carbon removal actually occurs, rather than simply helping markets deliver it.
What this includes: Government actions that commit to helping CDR grow as a market product, or that assume government responsibility for CDR as a waste product.
What the evidence is beginning to show
So far, most government activity falls into the first category. Governments are funding technology, developing standards, creating incentives and building the physical and regulatory infrastructure needed for CDR markets to grow.
There are also signs of strategic direction emerging as some governments begin connecting these individual measures to national climate strategies, institutions and longer-term goals. What remains much rarer is public responsibility: governments explicitly accepting that a certain amount of carbon must be removed and that public institutions are ultimately responsible for ensuring that it happens.
We synthesize all this information into our SCALE analysis. The pilot version is available here. Regular updates are planned for the future.
