WASHINGTON, May 13, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today Carbon180, a new breed of climate nonprofit, is publishing a series of recommendations for Congress to catalyze the next wave of transformation in carbon removal. Carbon removal has matured from a highly niche and overlooked set of climate solutions to an invaluable pathway for meeting global climate goals. These recommendations aim to accelerate further development in the space, mobilizing a combination of research, development, and demonstration (RD&D), deployment incentives, infrastructure, and regulations over the next 1-3 years.
“In the last year alone, we’ve seen tremendous movement in the carbon removal space,” said Erin Burns, executive director of Carbon180. “Congress now has the opportunity to develop and deploy carbon removal to its fullest potential and harness the associated environmental, economic, and social cobenefits in the process.”
While carbon removal is often touted for its potential to address both hard-to-decarbonize sectors and to draw down legacy emissions, one of its greatest strengths is its potential to support just climate action.
“Carbon removal is relatively new which means there is a window to shape policy decisions and deployment in a manner that addresses inequities–holistically and from the beginning–in a way previous environmental initiatives failed to,” says Ugbaad Kosar, deputy director of policy. “By weaving environmental justice into every facet of the carbon removal industry, Congress has the chance to not only redress previous harms but provide new opportunities and benefits for disadvantaged communities.”
In this policy roadmap, Carbon180 is calling on Congress to fulfill a series of actions across sectors to drive this industry forward, including:
LAND-BASED APPROACHES: Land-based carbon removal approaches, many of which are relatively inexpensive and already being deployed, can provide myriad environmental and economic co-benefits. Congress has the opportunity to utilize an integrated approach to assessing and deploying these solutions and build a durable and equitable carbon removal economy.
- Forests: Protect and restore existing public forests, create new public forests and strengthen programs at the DOI and USDA. Establish programs to conserve and restore private forest lands. Expand the Forest Inventory and Analysis program to create a centralized forest carbon data platform.
- Soil Carbon: Increase and expand research, development and deployment (RD&D) first and foremost. Drive adoption by expanding financial and technical support for farmers and ranchers, including adjusting the federal crop insurance program.
- Emerging Solutions: Invest in innovation grants for emerging wood technologies. Expand research for marine-based carbon removal aka ‘blue carbon.’ Expand wetland conservation programs.
- Environmental Justice: Establish a Civilian Climate Corps to address climate change and provide employment opportunities for US communities. Pilot a federal land link program to promote soil carbon storage among socially disadvantaged producers and invest in social science to identify and reduce their barriers to participation in soil carbon practices.
TECH-BASED APPROACHES: Technologies that pull carbon out of the atmosphere have the potential to remove gigatons of CO2, create hundreds of thousands of jobs, and contribute significantly to economic growth.
- Direct Air Capture (DAC): Build on RD&D efforts and create demonstration and deployment strategies within the Department of Energy. Specific actions should include investment in DAC-to-fuels pathways, the creation of an investment tax credit for DAC, and the expansion of the 45Q tax credit. Create an innovation prize focusing on direct air capture market, policy, and people to scale the technology.
- Geologic Storage: Update the Class VI underground injection well permitting process to enable more rapid development of carbon storage facilities and allow for pre-permitting on federal land. Create a task force to begin building pipeline infrastructure for CO2 transport.
- Federal Procurement: Direct agencies to procure carbon-negative products, like building materials and fuels, to drive the deployment of DAC, bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), and carbontech.
- Emerging Solutions: Create an RD&D program for enhanced CO2 mineralization.
- Environmental Justice: Establish a federal direct air capture siting research initiative to support equitable and safe deployment.
CROSS-SOLUTION APPROACHES: Carbon removal solutions have traditionally been developed and deployed in silos but with a host of opportunities and challenges across the industry, it is crucial to develop federal policy that utilizes expertise across federal agencies.
- Cross-Agency Collaboration: Expand and pass the CREATE Act to include a working group for environmental justice in addition to the creation of a large-scale carbon management committee and a federal carbon removal initiative.
- BECCS Deployment Roadmap: Create an interdisciplinary roadmap for BECCS deployment opportunities, and assemble a team to advise Congress on policy and US investment options.
- Emerging Solutions: Include biomass-based carbon removal products in the Value Added Producer Grant program.
- Environmental Justice: Establish dedicated funding and technical assistance to promote robust public engagement and local capacity building in frontline communities, and codify the interagency working group on environmental justice (IWG EJ).
Congressional attention–and funding–around carbon removal solutions has gained significant momentum over the last five years and especially in the last 12 months. The 2020 Omnibus Bill delivered historic wins for carbon removal and both the SCALE Act and the REPLANT Act, introduced in the first four months of the 117th Congress, signal a promise to accelerate land- and tech-based solutions. Alongside the continued support from the Biden administration and private sector leaders, including Stripe, Shopify, and Microsoft, carbon removal is positioned to grow into a booming industry. Congress now has the opportunity to solidify US leadership on climate and elevate carbon removal as a climate solution mainstay.
To view the full list of recommendations, click here. To get in touch with the Carbon180 policy team, email policy@carbon180.org.
About Carbon180
Carbon180 is a new breed of climate non-profit on a mission to fundamentally rethink carbon. Alongside policymakers, scientists, and businesses around the globe, Carbon180 develops policy, promotes research, and advances solutions to build a world that removes more carbon than it emits. Across the full portfolio of land-based and technological solutions, Carbon180 is building an industry around carbon removal to scale solutions equitably for decades to come. Find Carbon180 at Carbon180.org or on Twitter @Carbon_180 and see our research here.
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