The European Union’s New Carbon Removal Certification Process: A Step Towards Legitimizing Carbon Capture Technologies

The European Union (EU) has taken a significant step towards legitimizing carbon capture and removal technologies by agreeing to establish a certification process. This first-of-its-kind framework aims to sift out shoddy projects and ensure that only meaningful carbon removal initiatives are recognized and incentivized. With the EU’s commitment to reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, carbon removal technologies have become increasingly important. However, there are inherent risks associated with this strategy, making the certification process a crucial component in the EU’s climate plan.

The EU’s new certification process will dictate what counts as carbon removal, helping to prevent companies from misleading the public by promising to draw down emissions later while continuing to pollute. Lax rules or the absence of regulations could give companies a way to keep emitting carbon dioxide (CO2) while appearing to address climate change. If these promises fail or the technologies they rely on do not deliver, it could leave behind all of the pollution that could have been prevented through clean energy alternatives.

Christoph Beuttler, the chief climate policy officer at Climeworks, one of the first companies to develop large-scale carbon capture facilities, expressed his support for the EU’s initiative. “The European Union’s commitment to ‘getting carbon removals right’ is a significant step forward,” Beuttler said in a press release. “We encourage other countries and regions to follow the lead of the European Union to rely on stringent assessment of carbon removals.”

So far, the carbon removal industry has had to police itself. Climeworks, for instance, announced last year that its customers Microsoft, Stripe, and Shopify had become the first companies in the world to pay to filter their CO2 emissions out of the air, store those emissions underground, and have that service verified by a third party. DNV, an auditing company, worked with Climeworks to develop criteria and certify the carbon removal. In a separate effort, Stripe, Alphabet, Meta, Shopify, and McKinsey launched an initiative called Frontier in 2022 that vets carbon removal suppliers for companies interested in purchasing credits from them.

Carbon credits have a checkered history. Before carbon removal became trendy, many brands purchased carbon offset credits tied to forestry projects, with the idea that companies could cancel out some of their pollution by paying to protect forests that naturally absorb CO2. One credit is supposed to equal one metric ton of CO2 pollution that’s been avoided or sequestered. However, carbon offset markets are flooded with poor-quality credits that don’t represent real-world reductions in CO2 emissions. To avoid a similar fate with emerging carbon removal technologies, the EU’s new certification sets parameters for four different types of carbon removal: permanent carbon removal, temporary carbon storage, industrial carbon removal tactics, and nature-based strategies.

The framework also incorporates measures proposed by the European Commission in 2022, including requirements that carbon removal is quantifiable and long term. Projects are supposed to lead to additional reductions in CO2, meaning that the carbon wouldn’t have been sequestered otherwise without intervention. Projects also need to avoid having any other negative environmental impact. Notably, the EU’s new certification scheme won’t consider enhanced oil recovery (EOR) as a permanent carbon removal strategy. In EOR, fossil fuel companies shoot CO2 into the ground to force out hard-to-reach oil reserves. Occidental Petroleum, which is developing large carbon removal projects in Texas, has used EOR to sell what it calls ‘net-zero oil.’

The EU’s proposal is still too lax, some environmental groups warn. They are concerned about the framework incentivizing temporary carbon storage and allowing both companies and countries to claim CO2 removals, which could lead to double counting. Wijnand Stoefs, carbon removal policy lead for the nonprofit Carbon Market Watch, said in a statement, “The provisional agreement reached today is deeply problematic. Even the fundamental principle that removals must complement, not substitute, emission reductions has been violated.”

The provisional agreement still needs to be formally adopted by the European Council and European Parliament. If adopted, the certification process would be voluntary for carbon removal companies. However, only certified projects would count toward a country’s progress in meeting the European Union’s climate goals. Earlier this month, the European Commission released a strategy document for capturing CO2 emissions alongside a plan to reduce the bloc’s greenhouse gas emissions by 90 percent by 2040. The strategy envisions the EU having the capacity to store 280 million metric tons of captured CO2 a year by 2040, roughly equivalent to the annual emissions of more than 700 gas-fired power plants.

In conclusion, the European Union’s new carbon removal certification process is a significant step towards legitimizing carbon capture and removal technologies. By setting clear guidelines and assessing the quality of carbon removal projects, the EU aims to prevent greenwashing and ensure that only meaningful carbon removal initiatives are recognized and incentivized. With the EU’s commitment to reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, this certification process is crucial in ensuring that the bloc’s climate goals are met in a responsible and effective manner.