Publications

Greenhouse gas removals technologies are required to meet national and global net zero goals. Credible and comparable removals require standardised methods and approaches. International standards are being rapidly developed. This report presents a critical comparative analysis of the Draft Delegated Acts to the EU Carbon Removal and Carbon Farming (CRCF) (EU/2024/3012) which includes draft methodologies for BioCCS and DACCS and related regulations against the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) Core Carbon Principles (CCPs) and Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement which establishes the Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism. This assessment is in the context of UK Greenhouse Gas Removal (GGR) standards development led by the UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and executed by the British Standards Institution (BSI). It explores a scenario where the UK Government endorses the ICVCM as a minimum quality best practice for the voluntary carbon markets, as per the recent Voluntary Carbon and Nature Markets (VCNM) consultation.

Demonstrating methods for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is now a focus of research and development programmes designed to support decision making about future technology deployment. In this perspective piece, we outline some of the approaches to responsible research and innovation (RRI) being put to work in a United Kingdom-based programme organising field trials of various carbon removal methods. Unlike the disruptive technologies that predominate in RRI scholarship, many land-based methods for carbon removal have already been deployed, in some cases over many decades, with governance closely linked with longstanding fields of research and practice. We highlight why responsible innovation frameworks that developed in the context of geoengineering controversies may be only partially-suited to field trials of land-based carbon removal methods. We suggest that field trials of carbon removal methods are not simply evidentiary procedures but also strategic sites within an emerging innovation regime where RRI approaches can be both implemented and critically tested.

Since 2021, the GGR-D programme has piloted several GGR methods and investigated sustainable routes for large-scale removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, to inform decisions about greenhouse gas removal (GGR) deployment in the UK and globally. This report delivers important findings on technology potential as well as policy, legal and evaluation insights and methodologies. It reveals insights into entirely new approaches involving co-deployments of GGRs. Looking across the broad portfolio of GGR methods that could support the UK’s climate ambitions, it sets out a series of actions that would help scale up a portfolio of sustainable GGR options in the UK. For the five individual GGR methods that have been piloted – woodland creation and management, enhanced peatland restoration, enhanced rock weathering, biochar and perennial biomass crops for bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) – the report summarises key findings and policy implications, and provides cross-cutting lessons on land-based GGR emerging from these demonstrator projects.

In the summer of 2025, CO2RE commissioned ERM to produce greenhouse gas removal (GGR) cost updates building on ERM’s prior analysis, “Greenhouse gas removal methods and their potential to scale UK deployment”. This report presents the updated costs, reflects on changes from 2021 GGR cost estimates, and contextualises the findings within CO2RE research to inform GGR investment and policy decisions.

Natural CO2 removal is increasingly being claimed as anthropogenic climate mitigation. This misrepresentation is already prevalent for forests and coastal ecosystems; there is now the risk of the error reoccurring for open-ocean CO2 uptake via the biological carbon pump.

A clear, established and harmonious legal framework is crucial for the operation and scaling of any emerging industry, and this is no different for greenhouse gas removals (GGRs). The framework for GGRs is not a bespoke area of law tailored to GGR activities, but rather a complex landscape of pre-existing bodies of law applicable to particular GGRs or parts of GGR value chains. Based on 31 semi-structured interviews with stakeholders in governments, industry, and the research community, this report serves as the first comprehensive review of these diverse bodies of law in the UK. It explores the common legal challenges across all major GGR techniques currently being developed in the UK and looks at potential solutions.

Researchers, industry and policy-makers are considering carbon dioxide removal (CDR) methods as a way of accelerating the near-term mitigation of climate change, balancing residual emissions from hard-to-abate sectors, and addressing potential overshoot of climate targets such as the 1.5°C limit set out in the Paris Agreement. However, in many cases, CDR methods are at an early stage of research and development and raise various societal concerns – so it is crucial that it is done in a way that is responsible towards society. Responsible innovation and societal engagement involves members of the public in considerations about things that concern their interests. This helps strengthen accountability and transparency of CDR through learning from citizens, and can help to strengthen trust and legitimacy by building relationships between citizens, government and non-government actors. More broadly, it helps to build public engagement with climate change. This briefing draws on evidence from CO2RE research to examine how CDR can be better understood, communicated, appraised and governed in the UK.

Coordinated mobilisation of public and private investment in greenhouse gas removal (GGR) technologies is key to developing the GGR capacity required for the UK to achieve its 2050 net-zero greenhouse gas emissions target. It is also vital to meeting the interim targets for engineered removals of 21.3 MtCO₂ by 2040 (CCC, 2025). However, current GGR market conditions are not yet conducive to attracting private capital into GGR deployment. Technological uncertainty, revenue uncertainty and the presence of an unstable market-led environment limit investor confidence and hinder the establishment of a GGR market. The policy interventions being developed by the UK government – namely the integration of GGR into the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (UK ETS) and the introduction of carbon contracts for difference (CCfDs) – are welcome. However, based on our analysis, they are insufficient to kick-start and support GGR deployment at the necessary scale and pace. New groups of policies which strategically reduce GGR investment risk and create a more stable environment are required. This policy brief assesses and outlines public-private collaborations (PPCs) as an important intervention to unlock private-sector investment as part of a wider GGR policy ecosystem.

The UK has targets to deploy >100MtCO2 of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) by 2050, with interim technical targets of 5 MtCO2 and 23 MtCO2 by 2030 and 2035, respectively. In 2019, a number of policy initiatives were announced that have kick-started a nascent UK CDR ecosystem. To build on these foundations, it is recognised that there is a need for a shift in UK CDR institutional, governance and policy development commensurate with a pathway to realise the 2035 and 2050 targets. The US has also announced a number of potentially game-changing policies that stand to generate spillovers which will reduce the cost of scaling the sector if they can be captured by the UK. The question for UK policy-makers is therefore how to capture these spill-over effects when they materialise, and how to collaborate with US market-makers to track developments so as to design timely and effective policy when they are opportune to capture from the US. This report shares the findings from three engagements with US CDR initiatives undertaken by the CO2RE Ecosystem 26+ project team in March 2025. The project sought to explore how the proposed US interventions were being operationalised, in order to analyse how they might […]

This report collates discussions and findings from two engagements undertaken by CO2RE in St Ives, Cornwall in December 2024 and June 2025. The aim of the engagements was to learn from St Ives residents about their experience of marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR). In 2022, Planetary Technologies and South West Water conducted an mCDR trial off the coast of St Ives. There was limited consultation of the local community, leading to considerable mistrust and concern. After a backlash from local residents, no further trials were conducted and Planetary Technologies left Cornwall in the spring of 2025. This report collates findings from the St Ives engagements that we hope will inform the development of good governance, a code of conduct and robust community consultation processes for the UK CDR sector.