US, EU policymakers outline approach to CO2 removal in 2024 and post elections

US and EU policymakers shared strategies in a Jan. 17 webinar for boosting CO2 removal capabilities in a shifting political environment.

The webinar featured prominent US and EU policymakers in the field of CO2 removal. It was framed as an overview and comparison between the different approaches to scaling up CO2 removal policies and markets, including support for direct air capture technology.

The US representatives discussed several policies and initiatives upcoming in 2024, including:

• Expanding the Department of Energy's carbon removal purchasing program, where the department would directly procure CO2 removal
• Funding larger carbon removal pilot projects in the 1,000-5,000 mt range
• Working towards expanding the 45Q tax credit to more CO2 removal solutions

Meanwhile, EU representatives highlighted the following:

• Finalizing the framework for the EU certification of carbon removals and carbon farming
• Releasing further communication on 2040 climate ambitions
• Potentially including carbon removal in the EU Emissions Trading System

Both sides addressed the possibility of notable change to CO2 removal policies being a result of upcoming elections.

"The European elections will mostly change the European Parliament," Mark Preston Aragonés from environmental NGO Bellona, said. "There's a chance that we'll swing towards less climate progressive parliaments and it also changed the priorities of the commission, but it's not likely necessarily to change that much."

Aragonés said the expansion of CO2 removal is already in motion in the EU and that it would be difficult to reverse the momentum. He said in any election outcome, "it's quite difficult to deny the fact that there's a need to do much more, even than what the commission has already done."

In the US, the upcoming House, Senate and presidential elections will have implications for the scale of carbon removal investment, Giana Amador from the Carbon Removal Alliance said.

Amador highlighted many carbon removal policies enjoyed bipartisan support in the US, saying it is not as polarized as other technologies and called support for the technology "durable."

The DOE is tracking the impact of CO2 removal on not only emissions but also workforce and economic development, Rory Jacobson, CO2 removal lead at the US Department of Energy, said.

"Measuring the emissions benefit of [CO2 removable] is crucial, but also continuing to account for some of the other social benefits of these policies is going to be very important for continuing to make a positive case for carbon dioxide removal investment," Jacobson said.