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C2ES Publishes Policy Recommendations for Engineered Carbon Removal in New Brief

Press Release
September 4, 2024

C2ES Publishes Policy Recommendations for Engineered Carbon Removal in New Brief

Read the brief and the fact sheet

WASHINGTON – The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) today published a new set of policy recommendations from its engineered carbon removal (ECR) technology working group. The ECR technology working group convenes leading companies across the ECR ecosystem, including direct air capture (DAC) and biomass carbon removal and storage (BiCRS) companies, corporate buyers, financiers, supporting infrastructure developers, technology providers, and other key stakeholders.

The ECR brief constitutes the first of C2ES’s technology working group program, which provides a forum for stakeholders to discuss the technical, market, and policy solutions needed to rapidly scale four ‘critical path’ technologies: ECR, sustainable aviation fuels, long duration energy storage, and clean hydrogen. The brief includes five recommendations focused on specific actions the federal government can take to address known markets and finance barriers, support innovation, and scale ECR technologies.

Carbon removal has a critical role to play in complementing the urgent work of reducing emissions across our economy. While nature-based removals will play an important role, ECR has several unique advantages, including its scalability potential, greater durability and locational  flexibility.  ECR has seen a significant amount of innovation, policy development, and investment in the last decade, but it is not enough to achieve the 10,000-fold increase in annual carbon removal that will be needed in the next 25–30 years. The following federal policy recommendations are aimed at building on existing momentum, ensuring that the ECR ecosystem can be responsibly and efficiently scaled to deliver the climate benefits of this promising technology:

  • Increase program direction budget to fund staffing in key DOE offices
  • Adjust section 45Q for inflation
  • Require that all Class VI wells have associated long-term MRV trust
  • Develop a federal procurement program with increasing tonnage requirements
  • Create a federal economy-wide price on carbon with credits for emissions removals

“It is exciting to see the technological innovations that have been made in this field over the last decade, and the growing awareness of how important ECR will be to meeting our climate goals. Thoughtful and durable federal policy has a critical role to play, in helping establish the long-term market certainty that is essential to this industry reaching commercial scale, and ensuring that as the ECR sector grows, it does so safely and responsibly.” said Emily Pope, C2ES’s Senior Fellow for Carbon Management.

 

To learn more about our work around ECR, read the full brief, the blog post, and the fact sheet. This is the first of four technology work group briefs, which will be released throughout the fall of 2024.

 

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