How can we finance permanent removals without slowing down investments that drastically cut emissions?
What does a credible long-term financing strategy for carbon removals that supports, not slows, emission reductions look like?
Cutting greenhouse gas emissions rapidly and drastically must remain the cornerstone of climate action. However, to complement these efforts, it is important to responsibly develop permanent carbon dioxide removal methods to address residual emissions and eventually achieve net-negative emissions. The development and deployment of high-quality removals will rely, in part, on the availability of a predictable regulatory framework establishing suitable funding mechanisms that reflect environmental and social safeguards.
What are we tackling in the June workshop?
As a natural step after the first workshop, which focused on short-term instruments to finance permanent removals, in this second gathering, participants will discuss how permanent carbon removals can be financed and delivered effectively and safely in the longer term. The group will exchange views and decide on the key principles that should guide any regulatory instrument to finance removals in the long-term. They will use these principles to assess three policy options currently being discussed: 1) An EU removals trading scheme; 2) the extended producer responsibility concept; and 3) national removal targets under a revised Effort Sharing Regulation. After selecting one or two of these existing options, participants will outline the key elements of those in a potential legislative proposal, putting themselves in the shoes of EU policymakers.
What do we plan to achieve by the end of CO2ol Down phase 2?
The aim of phase 2 of the CO2ol Down co-creation process is to come up with a blueprint for a regulatory framework to finance carbon removals in the EU. This proposal should outline the basic structure of a suggested regulatory framework for financing permanent removals in the EU in the short, medium and long term.
After workshop 2, the CO2ol Down editorial board will bring together the results into a single draft document.
Agenda workshop 2
08:30 – Welcome coffee
09:00 – Start of the workshop: Check-in and recap
09:30 – Collaborative thinking session: Key principles for financing carbon removals
10:45 – Assessment of approaches
11:50 – Coffee break
12:00 – Co-drafting a legislative proposal – Session 1
13:00 – Lunch break
13:45 – Co-drafting a legislative proposal – Session 2
15:05 – Coffee break
15:15 – Refining the draft
16:45 – Debriefing
17:00 – End
Reading Material
Bednar, J., Macinante, J., Baklanov, A., Hall, J. W., Wagner, F., Ghaleigh, N. S., & Obersteiner, M. (2024). Beyond emissions trading to a negative carbon economy: a proposed carbon removal obligation and its implementation. Climate Policy, 24(4), 501-514. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14693062.2023.2276858#abstract
Carbon Gap and the Negative Emissions Platform (2025), Charting the path forward: Exploring compliance policy options for CDR in the EU https://carbongap.org/19-march-charting-the-path-forward-exploring-compliance-policy-options-for-cdr-in-the-eu/
Carbon Market Watch (2023), The bare necessities: Essential principles to design sensible carbon removal policies https://carbonmarketwatch.org/publications/the-bare-necessities-essential-principles-to-design-sensible-carbon-removal-policies/
Carbon Market Watch (2023), Poor framing: The role of negative emissions technologies
in existing climate policy frameworks https://carbonmarketwatch.org/publications/poor-framing-the-role-of-negative-emissions-technology-in-climate-policy-frameworks/
Carbon Market Watch et al. (2024), Co-created policy recommendations for EU instruments on permanent removals https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Policy-recommendations-for-EU-instruments-on-permanent-removals.pdf
ESABCC (2025), Scaling up carbon dioxide removals – Recommendations for navigating opportunities and risks in the EU https://climate-advisory-board.europa.eu/reports-and-publications/scaling-up-carbon-dioxide-removals-recommendations-for-navigating-opportunities-and-risks-in-the-eu
Meyer-Ohlendorf, N., Gores, S., Graichen, J. (2025). EU Climate Framework for 2040: How to Incentivise Carbon Removals? Selected EU policies and measures for carbon removals. https://www.ecologic.eu/sites/default/files/publication/2025/60028-BMWK-EU-2040-Removals-Incentives.pdf. Last accessed: 16.06.2025
Schleussner, CF., Ganti, G., Lejeune, Q. et al. Overconfidence in climate overshoot. Nature 634, 366–373 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08020-9
