Carbon Market Watch strongly opposes the integration of greenhouse gas removals (GGRs) in the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (UK ETS). Limiting global warming to 1.5°C, as pursued by parties to the Paris Agreement including the UK, requires immediate and deep emissions reduction throughout the 2020s and, on top of that, additional atmospheric carbon removal to balance out the very last residual emissions and reach net negativity in the coming decades. 

While maintaining a (decreasing) UK ETS gross cap would be the option preferred to limit mitigation deterrence, the UK ETS Authority should further consider establishing a separate incentive mechanism for GGRs. 

GGRs are an inherently weaker form of mitigation than reducing emissions, and their sustainable, permanent supply will be limited. GGRs should not be a prerogative of ETS sectors, but should be considered as a supplement to help reach economy-wide climate neutrality and net-negativity. The Authority should support “indirect inclusion”, through which the UK ETS financially supports GGR projects with its revenues.

Including GGRs in the UK system would complicate interactions with the EU ETS, where such integration, especially for land based sequestration, is currently not allowed and unlikely to become integrated in the future.