To reach the EU's 2050 goal of climate neutrality, the EU must remove substantial amounts of carbon from the atmosphere. This policy brief summarizes a workshop held during the NTNU Energy Transition Week 2021, about how negative emissions and CDR can offset emissions streams and remove emissions from the atmosphere. First it presents an overview of current technologies and approaches:

1. Coastal blue carbon
2. Soil carbon and biochar
3. Afforestation
4. Bioenergy with CO2 capture and storage (BECCS)
5. Direct air capture (DAC)
6. Mineralization and enhanced weathering

The brief considers how nature-based and engineered solutions can impact social aspects and other sustainable development goals (SDG) than climate, and what policy needs to provide to roll out negative emission approaches at scale.

Companies are realizing they need to include negative emissions to reach their net zero ambitions, and are willing to trade negative emissions and pay to reduce their carbon footprint. This is good news for establishing markets, and the brief looks at selected business models from Microsoft, Aker Carbon Capture, Becour, Gassnova, Equinor, and Schlumberger.

Main editor: Astrid Sørensen

Download Policy Brief - Negative Emissions and Carbon Dioxide Removal