Governance, legal & ethical factors

Robust Greenhouse Gas Removal (GGR) strategies require stable and durable legal frameworks for deployment and investment, and clarity on liability and responsibility.

Legal frameworks must address questions such as: who bears responsibility – the state, the GGR operator, or both; the standard of liability (negligence, strict or absolute); and whether liability is limited, for example to a financial maximum, creating an insurable risk. It must address what the loss and damage is and who may claim on this. It will also consider the ethical, financial and institutional implications.

How existing regulatory frameworks benefit or negatively impact the scaling up of technologies should also be considered.

The role of CO₂RE

CO₂RE researchers are assessing these questions by surveying GGR actions within the EU, and at the international level, to put forward recommendations appropriate for the UK and international mechanisms such as CORSIA.

The research will also deliver a method for evaluating the climate impact of GGR projects and other mitigation actions. A core aim is to address the fact that current assessments tend to gloss over the actual net impact of GGR on the climate, focussing more on consequences for investments, assets and infrastructure. The method proposed aims to enable comparison of the climate impact (beneficial or detrimental) of financial activities via a common metric.

Aims

The team will deliver the following:

• Survey the liability and responsibility issues for GGR and associated regulatory options

• Method for evaluating the climate impact of mitigation-related regulations

• Policy and governance recommendations to inform incorporation of GGR into UK carbon pricing review, ELMS rollout, CORSIA and other international market mechanisms; and more generally, how market-based or other pricing mechanisms or government financial incentives (e.g. fiscal) can support the scaling up of GGR

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