Tag: BECCS (bioenergy with carbon capture and storage)

The UK must not squander its energy legacy

Will Gardiner, Chief Executive Officer, Drax Group

24 October 2024

Opinion
Biomass storage domes and water cooling towers at Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire

This article appeared in the Yorkshire Post on  24 October 2024

Many of the original climate change heroes live and work here in Yorkshire and it is these men and women who have worked so hard to keep the lights on whilst also ensuring that Britain became the first major economy to halve its emissions.

However, whilst this may sound like an encouraging accolade, the new Government has inherited a challenging situation where Britain is now lagging behind on delivering its targets for generating renewable energy and stopping climate change.

The UK’s carbon budgets are a legacy that the Conservative Party should be proud of and the legally binding targets that the last Government committed to form the basis of a set of world leading pathways that, if delivered, will make a meaningful contribution to slowing decarbonisation and ultimately improve everyone’s quality of life.

Critically, they also underpin long-term energy forecasts which demonstrate that global electricity usage is expected to more than double by 2050.

Both Government and industry will have to work closely together to ensure that billions of pounds of investment is made into the UK in order to enable the delivery of the renewable energy infrastructure required to power this increase in demand.

This is most true here in Yorkshire and the Humber, where due to the legacy of our fossil fuel industries, we have the biggest decarbonisation opportunity of any region.

The decisions businesses are making drive economic growth, support thousands of high-quality jobs and signal that the nation is also open to foreign investment.

In Government, the Conservative Party understood the value of this long-term perspective but in opposition they currently seem more focused on short term political calculations that put them in danger of spoiling their legacy.

Last week the former Energy Secretary, Claire Coutinho, set alight the Conservative Party’s proud record of introducing carbon budgets and rowed back on her work to put the policies in place to meet them when she was Secretary of State.

She singled out Yorkshire’s Drax Power Station as being surplus to the country’s requirements, despite it powering 4 million homes and providing 4% of the country’s total power and 8% of its renewable electricity. Crucially, she neglected to say what could replace this significant amount of renewable and reliable generation capacity.

Everyone who works at Drax Power Station is proud of our 50-year history, the role we play today in delivering dispatchable, renewable power to the country when it needs it, not just when the wind is blowing and the sun is shining, and the ongoing contribution it can make to tackling climate change.

The transformation of the site from the country’s largest coal-fired power station into the single biggest source of renewable power, saw its carbon emissions slashed by 99% and in turn made a significant contribution to the UK meeting its current climate targets.

And now we want to go even further, by installing the game changing carbon removals technology, bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) at the site.

BECCS at Drax will make it significantly easier for the country to meet its short and long-term climate targets, deliver the new Government’s 2030 clean electricity grid and, critically, our binding carbon budgets.

As the National Energy System Operator and Government work at pace to set out and implement their plans for the sector, we are ready to engage positively to play our part in a solution that delivers the essential objectives of security of supply, grid stability and decarbonisation.

The UK needs a consistent and assured energy strategy that keeps the lights on, delivers the decarbonisation agenda that society needs and wants, and stimulates economic growth and prosperity.

A statement from Will Gardiner, CEO of Drax Group

Will Gardiner, Chief Executive Officer, Drax Group

18 October 2024

Opinion

“The Conservative Party’s decision is reckless and irresponsible. It is deeply disappointing that they now care more about political point scoring than the country’s ongoing energy security and ability to meet net zero.

“In Government, the party acknowledged the key role Drax Power Station, the country’s largest source of renewable power, plays in keeping the lights on for millions of homes and businesses when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine.

“As Secretary of State for DESNZ, Claire Coutinho’s name is on the planning approval for Drax’s plans for BECCS at the Selby site. The decision letter clearly stated that the project will support the transition to net zero by 2050.

“Her comments will upset Drax Power Station colleagues who work tirelessly to power the UK. It will also lead to concerns across our country-wide supply chain and among other UK based biomass generators.

“Our priority is working in partnership with the Government who is focused on safeguarding the UK’s energy security and delivering net zero.”

 

BECCS at Drax can accelerate the UK’s decarbonisation by delivering carbon removals

21 June 2024

Opinion

By Richard Gwilliam, UK BECCS Programme Director

Decarbonising our economy is critical to fighting climate change and meeting net zero by 2050.

In the UK, we have made strong progress in creating a greener electricity grid. We have gone further and faster than any other G7 country to transition to lower carbon power generation. That is a record we can be extremely proud of.

At Drax, we have played a key role in this journey by converting Drax Power Station from being the largest coal-fired electricity generator in the UK to the country’s biggest single source of renewable power.

By using sustainable biomass to generate electricity the carbon emissions of the North Yorkshire site have dropped by 99%. Drax Power Station is now in its 50th year of operation and contributes to UK energy security.

Our four generating units can provide up to 2.6GW of dispatchable, secure, renewable power to the country’s grid, at the times the country needs it most, such as when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine.

But we are not stopping here.

We plan to help accelerate the decarbonisation of the UK’s electricity system by adding the carbon removals technology, bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), to Drax Power Station. BECCS is the only technology which can generate renewable power while removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The International Energy Agency, the UK’s Committee on Climate Change and National Grid ESO all say that BECCS will have to play an important role in delivering net zero and ensuring the UK can reach its legally binding fifth and sixth carbon budgets. ​

Adding BECCS to the power station would also ensure that we can support the major political parties’ plans for grid decarbonisation and for delivering largescale engineered carbon removals.

The two BECCS units we want to deliver could remove 8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere per year. In carbon terms that is equivalent to taking 3 million cars off the UK’s roads or stopping all departing flights from Heathrow.

Analysis from economic consultancy Baringa has shown that with BECCS at Drax Power Station it will cost £15bn less to reach net zero by 2050 compared to other more complex measures to meet the target.

However, to deliver the project we will need to secure the right support from the next Government, including a bridging mechanism from the end of current renewable schemes in 2027 to BECCS operations starting in 2030.

With this in place we could invest billions in delivering BECCS, creating up to 10,000 jobs during construction. We also intend to source 80% of the materials for the project from British suppliers helping support economic growth across Yorkshire and the Humber and nationally.

Delivering BECCS at Drax Power Station will be a further milestone in the UK’s decarbonisation providing long-term energy security, carbon removals and economic development in the heart of Yorkshire and the Humber.

Learn more about BECCS at Drax here.

For 50 years Drax Power Station has been generating power and high quality jobs

13 June 2024

Opinion

By Bruce Heppenstall, Plant Director, Drax Power Station

Drax Power Station has kept Britain’s lights on for 50 years. As well as playing a key role in the country’s energy security, providing enough power for 4 million homes, we have been a long-term source of high-quality well-paid jobs, too.

The site I manage in Selby is one of the largest employers locally and combined with our regional supply chains we contribute £358m per year to the economy of Yorkshire and the Humber. There won’t be a single constituency within the region where we don’t have some form of economic impact.

As the Plant Director, I am proud of this role that we play in supporting regional prosperity. We employ around 1,000 people directly at Drax Power Station and through maintenance, logistics and other activities hundreds of contractor colleagues can also be on site during any one week – increasing over a thousand during a planned outage.

However, our impact doesn’t end at the borders of Yorkshire and the Humber either. We are one of the largest users of rail freight in the UK and our biomass wagons take pellets from the Ports of Tyne, Liverpool, Hull and Immingham. This element of our supply chain also supports 2,500 jobs across the country.

Analysis from Oxford Economics shows that in 2021 the economic activity created by Drax Power Station contributed £735m to the UK economy and supported 7,130 jobs.

For some time, we have also been investing heavily in the workforce of the future. Since 2003, we have trained over 150 apprentices at the power station. We work in partnership with Selby College and the University of Sheffield to give the next generation the skills they need for long-term, rewarding careers in renewable power and delivering net zero.

We know it is important to get young people engaged in green skills early and that is why, through the Drax Foundation, we work closely with local authorities, schools and social enterprises to support STEM education and training on energy efficiency. We’re also behind an initiative to install LED lightbulbs and solar panels in schools to manage their energy costs and get young people interested in our industry.

The future of Drax Power Station will involve us continuing to generate renewable power from biomass but also adding carbon capture and storage and creating the world’s largest BECCS facility. We are planning to invest billions in this critically important carbon removal technology and up to 10,000 jobs could be created and supported during construction.

BECCS is vital because it provides reliable, renewable power to support energy security, while removing millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and making a significant contribution towards addressing the climate crisis – no other technology does both.

Drax Power Station has played an important role both regionally and nationally through our contribution to energy security, jobs and economic growth for the last 50 years. And with the successful delivery of our BECCS project, I very much hope that we will continue to do so for the next 50.

But to get there we need to secure the right policy support for BECCS from the next government. That includes rapidly launching the Track-1 expansion and Track-2 project selection processes for CCS and making urgent progress on the development of a business model for greenhouse gas removal technology. With these in place we can get BECCS operational by 2030, removing millions tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere per year while ensuring that local people can build their careers in skilled jobs at the heart of the green transition, for decades to come in Selby.

Learn more about Drax’s plans for BECCS here.

The EU’s embrace of carbon removals

24 April 2024

Opinion

By Kasia Wilk, Head of Public Affairs and Policy, EU & Asia

The UK may no longer be part of the European Union, but the decisions taken by its institutions still impact British businesses and consumers.

What happens in Brussels matters, even if Britain no longer has a seat at the decision table. You may not notice the link to the EU at first, but often technological changes have their roots in the decisions made by the organisation’s institutions.

Take for instance something as innocuous as your mobile phone charger. In recent years USB-C charging ports have increasingly become the standard across Apple and Android devices. This is no accident, an EU directive to mandate all devices for sale on the continent must have a universal USB-C charge port by the end of this year.

This European decision has made the world’s biggest tech companies reconfigure its global designs and supply chains.

If Brussels can influence how the world charges its mobile phones, you won’t be surprised to learn its decisions on climate change policy carry significant influence too.

Nearly all the UN IPCC’s pathways to net zero by 2050 require a significant scale-up of engineered carbon removals. Their importance has led the EU to begin significant policy development in this area.

The opening months of 2024 has seen developments in the space gather at pace. In February, the EU Commission set out its proposals to reduce emissions by 90% by 2040 compared to levels in 1990. To achieve this, the Commission expects to scale-up industrial carbon removals like BECCS and DACCS alongside land-based techniques such as afforestation to 400 million tonnes of removals annually by 2040.

Released alongside the proposed target was the Industrial Carbon Management Strategy providing a roadmap for the removal and storage of millions of tonnes of CO₂ within the Union in the next three decades. This stressed the need to develop further policy options and support mechanisms for BECCS and DACCS.

With the need for large-scale carbon removals made clear, attention is now turning to how to certify and ensure credibility of removal projects. The EU institutions recently reached an agreement on the Carbon Removal Certification Framework (CRCF) which will likely become a blueprint for global for carbon dioxide removals (CDR) frameworks. This framework will create a critical foundation for scaling the voluntary market for CDRs in the EU, including BECCS.

Carbon removal companies like Drax want transparent and robust rules in the sector. It is vital that only high-quality removals, and removals that would not otherwise have taken place, are credited. The regulator also must prevent the same activity from being certified twice or using the same certificate twice. This is what the EU’s proposals aim to do, and it could be a blueprint for the UK and governments around the world. However, there remains room for improvement as the CRCF framework only covers removals within the EU’s borders, which means the international nature of the voluntary carbon removals market has not been considered.

Demand for CDRs is continuing to grow, with several high-profile international deals already announced. One example is our own memorandum of understanding with Respira which would enable the firm to buy up to 2 million metric tonnes of CDR certificates.

While progress is being made by Brussels, more policy development is needed in financially incentivising carbon removals through enhanced business models. Developments could include integrating carbon removals into compliance markets like the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme and introducing support schemes such as a Carbon Contracts for Difference. As the sector’s costs decrease through learning and economies of scale, the support frameworks could be tapered in the long-term ensuring value for money for consumers and governments.

While it can feel daunting standing at the foot of the hill staring at the summit, we know that the climate, our communities, and businesses across the continent are worth the sharp ascent.

Around 93% of emissions take place outside of the confines of the EU, but by acting swiftly Europe can lead the world on the development of a vibrant carbon removals industry.

At Drax, our aim is to become a global leader in carbon removals. We are currently progressing plans to deliver two BECCS projects – one in the UK and one in the US – by 2030, with both projects able to permanently remove a combined volume of 7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year.

We want to eventually be able to geologically sequester 20 million tonnes of carbon each year. Successful trials at our North Yorkshire power station in the UK enabled Drax to become the first company in the world to successfully capture carbon dioxide from the combustion of a 100% biomass feedstock.

BECCS will provide durable, high-integrity carbon removal credits and gigatonne scalability, and is the only technology that generates reliable, renewable power while removing carbon from the atmosphere.

With many Member States continuing to rely on fossil fuels to power their grids, biomass and BECCS conversions could be a vital role in making the EU’s ambition climate targets a reality. It is critical that the EU institutions continues to develop policy at pace to ensure businesses can have confidence to invest in carbon removal projects and the credits which come from them.

The EU has a remarkable opportunity to lead the world on this important area of climate policy, and it is one I hope they seize.

Counting the cost: Why its critical that discussions around Net Zero are based on accurate numbers

23 January 2024

Opinion

Summary 

  • Ember’s modelling approach has used a number of assumptions that do not align with Drax’s current project ambitions or the government’s proposed design of the power-BECCS business model. 
  • Ember’s analysis is based on a four-unit deployment of BECCS. Drax’s current project plans and planning consent anticipate a two-unit conversion to BECCS. 
  • The analysis has also assumed a 25-year term for any power-BECCS contract, current government proposals are for a 15-year deal. 
  • The likely power-BECCS business model will be a dual CfD for carbon and power, with revenues earned in the Emissions Trading Scheme and Voluntary Carbon Market significantly reducing the amount of support required from the UK government. 
  • Ember have not given appropriate consideration to the counterfactual of BECCS at Drax. Baringa analysis shows that BECCS at Drax could, save the UK £15bn in whole economy costs between 2030 and 2050 providing a more efficient, cost effective and straightforward pathway to meeting Net Zero targets than other potential options 

Recent steps from the UK Government have been a vote of confidence in our plans to deliver bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) at Drax’s power station in North Yorkshire, to deliver the world’s largest carbon dioxide removal facility. These decisions show the clear case and backing there is for Drax’s operations in Yorkshire and the Humber and the workers and communities that make this possible. Alongside planning consent, the Government also began consulting on a mechanism to facilitate large-scale biomass electricity generators to transition to power BECCS. As highlighted by the International Energy Agency, BECCS is the only technology that can both remove carbon and produce energy. These two steps together illustrate the decisions needed to ensure the UK’s energy security. 

Last week, we also saw a number of media reports about the cost of BECCS at Drax Power Station. Many of these reports were driven by a piece of analysis undertaken by Ember. Scrutiny on government expenditure is important, but it is critical that the assumptions made in determining the analysis are carefully considered and based on up-to-date information. 

Ember’s analysis ‘Drax’s BECCS project climbs in cost to the UK public’ has made a number of incorrect assumptions which do not align to the current proposed design of the power-BECCS business model or Drax’s current project ambitions. As a result, we believe Ember’s estimates relating to the £43bn overall cost of BECCS at Drax, as well as the projected £1.7bn yearly subsidy for BECCS at Drax is overstated.  

Three assumptions are of particular note: 

  1. Ember misunderstands Drax’s current plans to deploy power-BECCS at Drax Power Station. They have assumed that Drax converts all four biomass units to operate with carbon capture and storage. However, Drax’s current BECCS project plan, and recently successful Development Consent Order, anticipate a two-unit conversion. Any further development of BECCS beyond two units would require a change to the project plan, new engineering solutions and additional planning consents to be granted. This means that Ember’s assumptions have overestimated Drax’s BECCS deployment (and thus cost per year) by a factor of two.

  2. Ember has also misunderstood the currently intended structure of a power-BECCS business model. They have assumed that any contract for power-BECCS will be for a 25-year term. In their recent update on the design of the power-BECCS business model, published at the end of last year, the UK Government announced their minded-to position for a power-BECCS business model to have a term length of 15 years. This is broadly in line with business models proposed for other CCUS sectors. In their view, this provides a balance between subsidy costs and achieving negative emissions through delivering a larger volume of carbon removals. As a result, Ember’s assumption of a 25-year term does not accurately reflect the real-world policy development position and means that their assumption of the ‘lifetime costs’ of BECCS at Drax has been significantly overestimated.

  3. Ember has assumed that a power-BECCS project receives a Contract for Difference (CfD) on power market revenues only, assuming a strike price of £230/MWh. This approach ignores the primary purpose of BECCS which is its ability to produce negative emissions and facilitate the decarbonisation of some of the hardest and/or most expensive sectors of the economy such as aviation and agriculture.

 

Since some of the earliest proposed designs of the power-BECCS business model were announced back in August 2022, the Government has clearly stated its intent to ensure that remuneration for power-BECCS facilities takes into account both revenues earnable in the power market and in the carbon market. This position has led Government to develop a business model under a ‘dual CfD’ approach; a CfD on power (CfDe) and a CfD on carbon (CfDc). Under this approach, on the CfDc, the Government is exploring options to how a BECCS project will be able to access revenues in carbon markets such as the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) revenues, which displaces revenues under the CfDc. These markets have the potential to bring in private revenues to support BECCS facilities and would reduce the amount of support required from the UK government and the taxpayer under the CfDc. This approach is aligned with the ‘polluter pays’ principle of decarbonisation whereby CO2 intensive companies provide funding to support decarbonisation measures such as BECCS. Examples of this hybrid approach to supporting BECCS projects can be seen with Orsted’s ‘Kalundborg Hub’ which is partly supported by Danish state subsidies and an agreement with Microsoft to purchase negative emissions in the VCM.  

This hybrid (dual CfD) approach means that, even if you take Ember’s £230/MWh cost of BECCS at face value, UK energy bill payers will not face a £1.7bn annual bill as claimed. ETS and/or VCM revenues supporting the project (via the CfDc) would have the potential to significantly reduce the amount of Government support required for the project. Later this year, the UK Government intends to consult on the integration of negative emissions into the UK ETS and the role of VCMs.  

Ember’s analysis has also not given appropriate consideration to the counterfactual to BECCS at Drax, i.e. what is the incremental cost of the UK meeting its legally binding net zero targets in the absence of the carbon removals delivered by Drax Power Station’s BECCS units? For example, the backing data of Ember’s ‘Cutting the Bills’ report, outlines how a 98% clean electricity system can be achieved by 2030 and the contribution that 0.6GW of BECCS must make in order to achieve this target and reduce electricity bills by £300 per year. For context, 0.6GW of BECCS is approximately equivalent to the power output of one and a half operational Drax BECCS units.  

In a report commissioned by Drax and published by Baringa this week, their modelling shows that two units of BECCS at Drax could, if implemented, save the UK £15bn in whole economy costs between 2030 and 2050 providing a more efficient, cost effective, and straightforward pathway to meeting Net Zero targets than other potential options. The other potential options include an investment of £8.5 billion in synthetic natural gas production (using biomass to create gas for consumption in industry etc.), an increase in biomass imports to feed this increase in synthetic natural gas production, the rollout of an additional 735,000 more heat pumps in hard-to-treat homes costing £5 billion, and the additional deployment of onshore and offshore wind costing £3 billion plus associated storage and network costs. Whilst it is recognised that it is impossible to accurately predict the future and no counterfactual can be 100% accurate, it is nonetheless important to develop robust assumptions for a counterfactual to understand savings as well as costs. The overall savings delivered by BECCS at Drax in meeting net zero far outweigh the costs associated with its deployment.  

In conclusion, Drax recognises the importance of ensuring that all CCUS and energy projects in the UK represent good value for money for the taxpayer and that differing parties may have different views and assumptions when modelling the cost of a project. We believe that Ember’s interpretation of both the scope of Drax’s BECCS project and the business model being developed to support power-BECCS deployment in the UK has resulted in an inaccurate and overstated picture of the cost of Drax’s BECCS project to UK electricity consumers. We remain committed to discussing these matters with government and remain confident in our ability to demonstrate that our project is value for money and expect that once the power-BECCS business model has been finalised, it is highly likely that the government will publish a full account of the strike price of Drax’s BECCS project, as they do with other CfD supported projects.  

Development of UK CCS infrastructure and BECCS business model

20 December 2023

Financial News

Drax notes the announcement by the UK Government of further policy support for the development of carbon capture utilisation and storage clusters (CCUS) in the UK, including an update on the Track-1 expansion and Track-2 processes.

The UK Government has also reiterated its ambition to deploy at least 5 MtCO2/year of engineered greenhouse gas removals by 2030, potentially scaling to 23 MtCO2/year by 2035 and up to 81 MtCO2/year by 2050, and published its latest position on the design of a Power BECCS business model, which includes a 15-year CfD with a dual payment mechanism linked to both low-carbon electricity and negative emissions.

Drax Group CEO, Will Gardiner said:

Will Gardiner, Drax Group CEO

“Today’s announcements by the Government will further progress the development of CCUS clusters in the UK and are an important step forward in facilitating the deployment of large-scale BECCS.

“We welcome the publication of further details on a BECCS business model and the Government’s continued commitment to deploy at least five million tonnes of greenhouse gas removals by 2030, which we believe can only be achieved through delivering BECCS at Drax Power Station.

“BECCS has the potential to deliver carbon removals whilst generating renewable power and installing this technology at Drax Power Station will enable it to continue to play a critical role in the UK’s energy security, creating and supporting thousands of jobs in the Humber region and helping the country meet its Net Zero targets.”

Details of the update from the UK Government:

Track-1 expansion – the Government has agreed Heads of Terms with the operator of the East Coast Cluster CO2 transport and storage network and will now consider the best time to launch an expansion process for the East Coast Cluster from 2024.

Track-2 cluster deployment – the Government has confirmed plans for the assessment of an initial “anchor phase” of capture projects connecting to the Acorn and Viking clusters, which will target projects for deployment in 2028/9, and the development of a “buildout phase” for additional projects to connect thereafter.

The updates on Track-1 expansion and Track-2 cluster deployment continue to affirm that there are two potential routes which could support BECCS at Drax Power Station as well as wider CCS projects in the Humber region by 2030 – the East Coast Cluster and Viking CCS cluster. Drax is in discussions with all relevant stakeholders in the region about the potential of deploying BECCS at Drax Power Station.

Separately, Drax continues to expect that a public consultation on a bridging mechanism will commence shortly.

Notes:

Links to documents

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/carbon-capture-usage-and-storage-ccus-december-2023-statement/ccus-december-2023-statement

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6581851efc07f3000d8d447d/ggr-power-beccs-business-models-december-2023.pdf

Enquiries:

Drax Investor Relations:
Mark Strafford
+44 (0) 7730 763 949

Media:

Drax External Communications:
Chris Mostyn
[email protected]
+44 (0) 7548 838 896

Andy Low
[email protected]
+44 (0) 7841 068 415

Website: www.Drax.com

END

Can the EU lead certification of carbon removals globally?

20 September 2023

Opinion

By Kasia Wilk, Head of Public Affairs and Policy for Europe and Asia, Drax 

Key takeaways: 

  • Certification of carbon removals provides a mechanism to verify and ensure the credibility of carbon removal projects and their outcomes 
  • EU’s proposed certification mechanism is first of its kind but does not fully reflect the international dimension of carbon markets: it is unclear how removals outside of the EU and certificates issued outside of the EU will be treated. 
  • Understanding the use case of the certified units is equally important to the success of the regulation. Voluntary markets and corporate claims are essential to support the scale up of the industry. If the EU recognises and handles this challenge it could lead the world in carbon removals certification. 
  • EU climate policies should prioritise support for carbon removal solutions that are technically ready, economically feasible, permanent and have additional co-benefits. 
  • Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) is unique in its ability to deliver renewable power and remove carbon from the atmosphere simultaneously.   
  • Sustainability of biomass is heavily regulated by the Renewable Energy Directive (RED). It is one of the strictest set of sustainability criteria for forest biomass in the world.  

Why do we need carbon removals?  

This summer was the warmest month ever recorded, the impact of climate change is being felt here and now. Tackling the causes of global warming is now more pressing than ever. We are currently on track for a 14% rise in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. This could lead to temperatures increasing by more than double the Paris Climate Agreement’s 1.5 degrees target and bringing about even more extreme weather. Urgent action is needed now to revert this catastrophic trend. It’s increasingly clear that carbon dioxide removal (CDR) will be essential to reach Net Zero by 2050 as these technologies balance out those emissions that are difficult to avoid as well as help companies remove their historic emissions. They do so by capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) that is already in the atmosphere and removing it and storing it permanently. According to the Sixth Assessment Report of the UN’s IPCC, nearly all pathways to Net Zero by 2050 will require a significant scale-up of carbon removals. Carbon removal technologies are developing at pace and can make a significant contribution to tackling climate change. Nevertheless, to get the sector to where it needs to be by mid-century requires the right policies and investment to support deployment. 

The EU has already taken a number of steps to support the development of carbon removals. The CCS Directive establishes a regulatory framework for the geological storage of CO2 and the proposal for a Carbon Removal Certification Framework (CRCF) will support the development of a voluntary carbon market which is a cornerstone for the development of CDR. 

However, to support the scaling up of the sector it is essential to (1) assess the scale of removals required, (2) define binding EU targets and (3) develop roadmaps for the scale up of carbon removals in Europe. It is also important to coordinate Member State commitments, ensuring their plans for deployment can be realised through greater cooperation. 

The importance of certification 

Certification of carbon removals is essential for driving technological development and deployment. It provides a mechanism to verify and ensure the credibility of carbon removal projects and their outcomes. We need transparent and robust rules and procedures to ensure that only high-quality removals and removals that would not otherwise have taken place are credited, and to prevent the same activity from being certified twice or using the same certificate twice. This is what the EU proposal for a regulation establishing a Union certification framework for carbon removals aims to do. 

The proposed certification mechanism is a world-first and positions the EU as the leader in the field, addressing the need for removals in climate policy and providing a stringent, transparent regulatory oversight on certification. It has the potential to set high-quality criteria, create much needed standards for growing the carbon removal market and address many of the shortcomings that hamper its growth today. 

Yet, the scope of the EU certification proposal does not go far enough. It is currently limited to removals within the EU and it is unclear how removals outside of the EU and certificates issued outside of the EU will be treated, despite the important international dimension of climate policy. 

The European Commission has said that international carbon markets can play a key role in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions cost-effectively. Although specifics are still under development, the Paris Agreement provides a robust and ambitious basis for the use of international markets and reinforces international targets, transparency and the accountability. Recognising the importance of international carbon markets, Article 6 of the agreement: 

  • allows parties to use international trading of emission allowances to help achieve emissions reduction targets 
  • establishes a framework for common robust accounting rules, and 
  • creates a new, more ambitious market mechanism.

The lack of international consideration in the Commission’s proposals for certifying carbon removals could be challenging in the long run – particularly in light of the foreseen end uses of certified removal units, including their international exchange through voluntary carbon markets.  

To mitigate this, the Commission should consider two additional scenarios as part of the discussions on the scope of this voluntary certification framework: 

  • Credits generated outside the EU – EU businesses will still be able to use voluntary markets to purchase credits from projects in other jurisdictions, outside of the EU.  These could not be subject to the same high standards, unless they are being given the option to comply with the voluntary framework. 
  • Linking compliance markets – While integration of carbon removals with the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) framework will be assessed by the European Commission over the next few years, this proposal should take account of future potential linking of compliance markets.  Should removals be fungible in those linked ETS markets, it will be within the EU’s interest to ensure removals outside the EU are subject to the requirements and standards of the EU CRCF. 

How to assess and compare the existing CDRs methods? 

All carbon removal technologies will have a role to play in tackling climate change. However, they all differ in terms of process, permanence and technological readiness. To reach its Net Zero targets, EU climate policies should prioritise support for carbon removal solutions that are technically ready, economically feasible and permanent. They should take into account additional co-benefits for local communities, power systems and the environment, as well as the potential to be deployed at scale to ensure these technologies can make maximum contribution to the achievement of EU climate goals. 

BECCS is one of the best examples of this. When compared to other technologies, BECCS is unique in its ability to deliver renewable power and remove carbon from the atmosphere simultaneously whilst generating thousands of jobs across its value chain. 

It is also very well regulated. Sustainability of biomass is already covered by the Renewable Energy Directive (RED). The sustainability criteria for biomass in RED were updated in 2023 and has been formally adopted by the European Parliament. It is one of the strictest set of sustainability criteria for forest biomass in the world. It applies equally to domestic and imported biomass and protects against over-sourcing. It also safeguards biodiversity, ensures forest regeneration and sets strict limits on all supply chain emissions, including transportation. The 2023 revision of the RED (REDIII) specifically took account of the projected growth in biomass demand to 2050, including for BECCS, and amended the sustainability criteria appropriately.  

BECCS projects will see carbon capture equipment installed in plants that will also produce power, heat or fuels. In many cases the technology will be retrofitted to existing plants. Regulatory consistency here will be paramount.  

The detailed methodologies that will be developed under the certification framework will need to reflect the vast array of existing regulations, such as RED, to support deployment of these technologies, stimulate investment – and ascertain EU climate leadership – supporting domestic technologies/ or technologies in the region. 

What are the end uses of certified removals? 

Understanding the use case of the certified units is essential to the success of the regulation. The Commission proposal alludes to different end-uses, such as the compilation of national and corporate greenhouse gas inventories, the proof of climate-related corporate claims, or the exchange of verified carbon removal units through voluntary carbon markets. 

However, ongoing debates in the European Parliament – including on related files such as the Green Claims Directive – seem to threaten some uses. Banning claims based on offsetting would reduce incentives for companies to take supplementary action outside their value chains and deter the necessary investment going into the sector.  

Whilst emissions reductions should remain the absolute priority, carbon removals are essential to meet net zero targets and to address residual emissions and potentially historical emissions. The sector needs to start scaling up now for the EU to reach its climate targets in the coming decades. We cannot afford to wait until 2040 for a compliance market to begin scaling up carbon removals as it will be too late.  This is why voluntary markets and claims are critical.  

Companies should be incentivized to make some claims now provided they are on track with their GHG emissions reduction targets. At the same time, the EU should ensure consistency with other pieces of legislation such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) which also covers the use of carbon credits. 

Coming back to the international dimension, it will be important in that context to clarify how removals from outside the EU are to be treated on the EU market given the extraterritorial dimension of certain pieces of EU legislation and global nature of supply chains.