Non-profit organization Climate Leadership Coalition (CLC) has published a report that looks into the role of the Nordic countries in accelerating carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and carbon utilization (CCU) in the global fight against climate change.
In order to reach climate neutrality, the global society needs to be removing between 7 and 9 Gt of CO2 annually, an amount that equals the current emissions of the thermal coal market.
This goal could be attained through technologies like bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), direct air capture and storage (DACCS), biochar, and different carbon capture and utilization (CCU) methods.
As this scenario calls for urgent decarbonization, the report studied what can be done to accelerate CDR and CCU in the Nordic countries, a leading region in the climate action sphere.
According to the report, the Nordic countries, including Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland, and Denmark, have key assets that can spearhead the scale-up of CDR.
These include the region’s vast capacity for onshore and offshore geological CO2 storage, cost-optimized clean power production, large amounts of biogenic CO2 from point sources (crucial for BECCS deployment), and leadership in climate issues and green technology.
So far, the Nordics have made significant progress in issuing policies to support the CDR sector, especially Denmark and Sweden. However, the report states that further national and EU regulations are needed to facilitate the advancement of the CDR industry.
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Building on thorough research and feedback gathered from business and ministry representatives from Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, the CLC report has outlined recommendations for Nordic policymakers that could boost CDR development.
It calls for the establishment of separate ambitious targets for removals and reductions, along with clear national strategies for CDR and CCU, providing early-stage support and demand for CDR.
Besides CDR, policymakers also need to back CCU projects to secure the synthetic fuel and material market.
The Nordic region needs to strengthen cooperation on cross-border value chains, while the EU needs better recognition of biogenic CO2 and mixed-source projects, along with preparations for the introduction of EU-level compliance markets.
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