Switzerland has made a historic move by reporting industrial carbon dioxide removal (CDR) in its 2024 greenhouse gas inventory, submitted this month to the UNFCCC.
This motion marks the first instance in which a country’s inventory includes negative emissions from industry.
The 2024 Swiss inventory provides a comprehensive overview of greenhouse gas emissions, as stipulated by the Paris Agreement. This data was submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) by the country’s Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN).
The data shows that in 2024, Switzerland achieved a 27.3% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions compared to 1990 levels. During that year, emissions amounted to 40.1 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent, or approximately 0.5 million tonnes less than in 2023.
According to the inventory, in 2024, Swiss emissions from buildings, industry, transport, and other sectors such as agriculture, synthetic gases, and waste were on average 27.3% lower than their 1990 levels.
The inventory includes data on achieved industrial CDR from the DemoUpCARMA & Storage project and from the voluntary carbon market.
Funded and supported by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) and the FOEN, the DemoUpCARMA & Storage project (Demonstration and Upscaling of CARbon dioxide MAnagement solutions for a net-zero Switzerland) was a pilot that wrapped up towards the end of 2023.
Led by ETH Zürich, the project aimed to demonstrate the implementation and scale-up of CO2 utilization and permanent storage in primary and recycled concrete in Switzerland, as well as CO2 transport and permanent storage in a geological site outside the country.
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The industrial CDR data represents small volumes of biogenic carbon dioxide from biogas/sewage gas upgrading facilities. The reported negative emissions come from storing this CO2 in demolished concrete in Switzerland through a carbonation process.
In the inventory, the total carbon dioxide amounts captured for storage, as well as CO2 leakage during transport and storage injection, are reported for the years between 2022 and 2024.
With this milestone move, Switzerland is underlining the role that industrial CDR solutions can play in tackling CO2 emissions. This motion sets a precedent that could serve as a blueprint for other countries working towards sustainability goals.
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