On Wednesday 26 June carbon removal policy experts assembled in Brussels to discuss EU policy options for the safe and reliable long term financing of carbon dioxide removals (CDR). 

Participants were challenged at this workshop to collectively decide on the most promising policy option and draft a legislative proposal that would provide EU policymakers with the key elements of potential EU compliance instruments to finance the delivery of permanent removals. 

Building on the May workshop, which resulted in a blueprint for a viable EU Development and Delivery Framework for removals and charted the path for the short term, the process of the second workshop aimed to extend this proposal into an encompassing framework planning from today towards net-zero and net-negativity thereafter.

Principled foundations

First, the group determined the principles that are essential to craft a robust policy for the delivery of removals in the long term. Participants discussed how concepts including the polluter pays principle, climate integrity, and the ability to deliver a net-negative economy could be implemented in such a policy. 

After agreeing on key principles, the group moved on to explore three policy approaches currently discussed by carbon removal policy experts: (1) A removal trading scheme, (2) implementing an extended producer (or emitter) responsibility, and (3) permanent removal targets in a revised EU Effort Sharing Regulation. Three short presentations outlining the policy options informed the debate before participants shared which option they thought most aligned with the principles. It was decided that the removal trading scheme would be the most appropriate template for the following work.

In the shoes of EU legislators

The experts then played the role of policymakers for the rest of the day. They split into three groups and were assigned the task of drafting a credible policy text that would provide the framework for an EU removal policy that can deliver removals in the long term, aligned with the previously agreed principles.

Essential design elements were scrutinised by the groups, such as which entities should be covered in such a system, which mechanisms could obligate actors to remove carbon dioxide themselves or pay for the removal by others, or how such a policy could be embedded in the existing EU climate architecture. All three groups generated ideas on the structure and content of the policy proposal, and developed clear suggestions on how their proposed mechanism would work in practice. 

Together, the results were then compared and discussed by all participants. While the three groups took different directions on specific elements of the drafted policy, the final debate in plenary showed many overlapping elements and a common understanding on the purpose behind the chosen designs.

Combining ideas

This second workshop now marks the end of the collection and drafting stage of this year’s CO2ol Down process. The focus now shifts to refining the legislative proposal.

In the next step, the CO2ol Down editorial board will combine the three drafts into one consolidated proposal. The result will then be shared with the whole group, who will be invited to agree on its final form. Once all changes are taken into account and the proposal is fully formulated, it will be communicated publicly and presented to policymakers to advise the Commission’s preparatory work on the topic.

Carbon Market Watch is grateful to participants for showing up with open minds, good energy, and a wealth of knowledge. Their contributions have laid a strong foundation for the work ahead.

Participants in alphabetical order

Ulriikka Aarnio (Climate Action Network Europe)

Francesca Battersby (Carbon Gap)

Petra Bistricic (Carbon Balance Initiative)

Martin Cames (Oeko-Institut)

Alice Evatt (University of Oxford)

Sabine Frank (Carbon Market Watch)

Benjamin Gorlach (Agora Energiewende)

Lambrini Margariti (Negative Emissions Platform)

Nils Markusson (Lancaster University)

Leo Mercer (Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, LSE)

Silke Mooldijk (NewClimate Institute)

Mark Preston (Bellona)

Ennio Prizzi (Bioenergy Europe)

Wijnand Stoefs (Carbon Market Watch)

Kasia Wilk (Elimini)

Facilitators

Stephen Boucher (Dreamocracy)

Pauline Tawil (Dreamocracy)

Maaike Berthoud (Dreamocracy)

Fabiola De Simone (Carbon Market Watch)

Daniel Orth (Carbon Market Watch)

Marlène Ramon Hernandez (Carbon Market Watch)

Visual documentation

Miriam Vicente Marcos (Carbon Market Watch)

Magdalena Zawieracz (Carbon Market Watch)