Scaling the new Greenhouse Gas Removal (GGR) sector is an unprecedented challenge. It requires interventions that address risk and uncertainty in order to encourage actors to engage in the negative emissions market as it transitions and to ensure that risk is not placed on tax payers.
This CO₂RE event explored a central question: how does the market deal with the variety of GGR approaches, each with different degrees of permanence (the length of time removed carbon is stored out of the atmosphere) and reversal risk (the risk that the stored carbon is released)?
Three expert speakers debated three possible approaches proposed in a recent Bellona paper, providing perspectives from civil society, the insurance sector and GGR project developers.
Approaches and panelists:
• Separate the markets for different GGRs – Adam Whitmore, Bellona UK
• Use exchange rates – Natalia Dorfman, co-founder Kita
• Have an obligation to deliver permanence (and replace reversals) – Chris Manson-Whitton, Progressive Energy
The discussion was chaired by Professor Cameron Hepburn, Principal Investigator of CO₂RE, the Greenhouse Gas Removal Hub and Director of the Smith School, University of Oxford. There will also be time for audience Q&A.
The event was likely of particular interest to policymakers, GGR innovators and project developers, financial investors, academics and research institutes, carbon crediting organisations, the insurance and legal sectors, and civil society.
CO₂RE is tackling the issue of risk and uncertainty through its cross-cutting research programme on GGR which includes research on economic policies and incentives; business models; governance, legal and ethical factors; monitoring, reporting and verification; and public values.
This debate was part of a series of events on Market Transition Risk, and follows an earlier event on Building the new GGR industry: What roles for the government and private sector?
