How can the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism help scale carbon dioxide removal?

Designed to put a price on imported carbon and prevent leakage, but could it also act as a catalyst for scaling CDR?

This CDR Scoop cuts through the noise to explore this critical link. We're digging deep to uncover the potential synergies and challenges.

To ensure we cover all angles, we're thrilled to welcome leading CBAM expert Dan Maleski from Redshaw Advisors. Get ready for unparalleled insights from someone truly in the know!

Join co-hosts Sebastian Manhart and Eve Tamme for another insightful and punchy 30-minute session. Let's unpack this complex topic together.

Links:

• Eve Tamme: LinkedIn and Website
• Sebastian Manhart: LinkedIn and Website
• Dan Maleski: LinkedIn
• OEIS Podcast on CBAM with Dan
• CRA 3-pager on CBAM and CDR in the U.S.
• BCG study with a great section on CBAMs

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A fun, interactive, first-of-a-kind live debate with over 1000 attendees signed up.

We picked two real heavyweights: DAC, the poster-child of CDR, with over 200 DAC companies founded to date. On the other hand, biochar, responsible for a whopping 84% of all durable CDR deliveries to date.

In the DAC corner: Martin Freimüller is the Co-Founder and CEO of Octavia Carbon – the first DAC company in the Global South and fifth largest in the world. He moved his life to Kenya in 2021, upon realising it's the world's best place for DAC.

In the Biochar corner: Sebastian Manhart is Senior Policy Advisor at Carbonfuture and a Board Member of the International Biochar Initiative. Few post as much about biochar as Sebastian. 

Moderated by the CDR Policy Scoop co-host Eve Tamme to keep it punchy (not literally), informative, and entertaining. 

Disclaimer: The primary objective of this debate is to inform & entertain, not to create division. It takes ALL CDR methods to reach the gigaton scale.

Links:

• Eve Tamme: LinkedIn and Website
• Sebastian Manhart: LinkedIn and Website
• Martin Freimüller: LinkedIn and Octavia Carbon website

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On March 31st, EU Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra floated various ideas for how Europe’s expected 90% emission reduction target for 2040 could be achieved.

One of them: letting EU countries purchase United Nations Article 6 credits to meet EU's 2040 climate target. Similar suggestions are currently being proposed by the upcoming German government.

This would require undoing a core principle of Europe’s Climate Law: only European reductions and removals shall count towards climate neutrality.

The backlash has been significant, especially in civil society and environmental groups.

But could this - with some modifications - actually provide a smart path for Europe?

Links:

• Eve Tamme: LinkedIn and Website
• Sebastian Manhart: LinkedIn and Website
• Politico article on Commissioner Hoekstra’s comments

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

8,000 companies have emission reduction targets validated by the Science Based Targets initiative. Only around 50 of them have so far purchased durable carbon removal.

Imagine if all of them purchased CDR? The impact could be >50Mt of demand. Per year. Starting from 2030.

On March 18th, the SBTi released the draft net-zero standard 2.0 which marks a potential inflection point. Will it:

• Drive companies to begin CDR purchases immediately?
• Keep CDR voluntary until the 2040s?
• ⁠Inadvertently push companies away from SBTi due to concerns about mandatory CDR costs?

To make sense of this wide spectrum of possibilities, the CDR Policy Scoop is delighted to have Robert Höglund back on the show. He has been a member of the external SBTi Technical Advisory Group and understands the process and its implications for CDR like no other.

Links:

• Eve Tamme: LinkedIn and Website
• Sebastian Manhart: LinkedIn and Website
• Robert Höglund: LinkedIn, Website, and SBTi draft CNZS Analysis
• SBTi’s draft Corporate Net Zero Standard Consultation
• Carbon Direct Analysis on draft SBTi CNZS
• Lukas May analysis on potential CDR demand of draft SBTi’s CNZS

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Aviation is responsible for almost 1Gt of CO2 emissions, or 2.5% of global emissions. Up to 4% when accounting for non-CO2 climate warming effects. And demand is only going up: 3-4% year-on-year.

Aviation is also notoriously hard to decarbonise: most hope is placed on sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). Given there will always be considerable residual emissions (ICAO: 200Mt-950Mt in 2050), carbon removal is central to aviation’s net-zero aspiration for 2050.

From a policy perspective, it is incredibly challenging to regulate, as 61% of aviation emissions are emitted on international flights and only 39% within a single country’s boundaries.

A promising solution is emission trading systems for domestic/regional emissions (think EU ETS) and CORSIA for international emissions.

Sounds easy? The reality is incredibly complex, messy, and potentially worrying.

Listen in to hear Eve Tamme and Sebastian Manhart unpack this topic and provide clear solutions for what could be done in future.

Links:

• Eve Tamme: LinkedIn and Website
• Sebastian Manhart: LinkedIn and Website
• People love flying, and that is not going to change
• The complex CORSIA vs EU ETS nexus
• E-fuels or storage – how to make the most of clean electricity and captured CO2
• ReFuelEU Aviation
• CORSIA

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Will the EU need 2x as much CDR?

The highly anticipated 333-page milestone report on carbon removal by Europe's Scientific Advisory Board has landed, promising to be the most comprehensive analysis of CDR to date. 

Does this heavyweight report deliver the strategic guidance needed to shape effective EU CDR policy? What other crucial insights does it offer – and more importantly, what might it have missed?

Eve and Sebastian delve into the report and share their take.

Tune in to find out more.

Links:

• Eve Tamme: LinkedIn and Website
• Sebastian Manhart: LinkedIn and Website
• Report: ‘Scaling up carbon dioxide removals – Recommendations for navigating opportunities and risks in the EU’ by the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change
• Eve’s findings on the 333-page CDR report
• Will the EU need twice as much CDR as expected?
• Supercharging carbon removal from the EU’s land sector

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In February 2025, all probationary contract staff at the Department of Energy were terminated, including the most incredibly talented and experienced people who had turned the U.S. into a CDR powerhouse over the previous years.

What does this - alongside the freezing of IRA and BIL funds - mean for CDR in the U.S. moving forward? How will DAC Hubs be affected? What about the Public Procurement Purchase Prize?

To make sense of this very difficult and sensitive situation, Eve Tamme and Sebastian Manhart are joined by the one and only Noah Deich, who initiated and led many of the CDR initiatives the DoE became famous for.

Tune in to find out more.

Links:

• Eve Tamme: LinkedIn and Website
• Sebastian Manhart: LinkedIn and Website
• Noah Deich: LinkedIn
• Reversing Climate Change Podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts
• Sebastian’s post about CDR in DoE and follow-up/apology
• X-Prize $100M Prize For Carbon Removal

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Emission trading systems (ETS) are often touted as the largest potential source of demand for carbon dioxide removal (CDR), providing a large, predictable market worth billions. 

The EU ETS is by far the largest and most successful in the world, with its market size around 900 billion EUR and carbon price climbing over 80 EUR/t. 

2025 is the time when a lot of decisions to critical questions will need to be answered. From the design of such integration, to a selection of which CDR technologies, to the volume allowed.

Eve Tamme and Sebastian Manhart debate this hot topic where their views don’t always align.

Tune in to find out more.

Links:

• Eve Tamme: LinkedIn and Website
• Sebastian Manhart: LinkedIn and Website
• Should biochar carbon removal (BCR) be integrated into the EU Emission Trading System?
• Carbon removals in the EU ETS. Good idea? Bad idea?
• Should negative emissions be included in the EU ETS?
• How to include carbon removals in the EU ETS?
• Putting the ‘Net’ in Net Zero: Carbon Removals and the EU Emissions Trading System
• The Balancing Act: Risks and Benefits of Integrating Permanent Carbon Removals into the EU ETS

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In carbon removal policy circles, three simple words - like-for-like - seem to come up more and more. It is a simple and obvious concept that is actually incredibly complex and misunderstood.

Robert Höglund joins Eve Tamme and Sebastian Manhart in exploring like-for-like as a concept, why it is becoming a core pillar of CDR policy design and what net-zero targets should actually look like.

Tune in to find out more

Links:

• Eve Tamme: LinkedIn and Website
• Sebastian Manhart: LinkedIn and Website
• Robert Höglund: LinkedIn, Website and Substack
• Geological Net Zero and the need for disaggregated accounting for carbon sinks
• The hidden risk in net zero targets: why storage durability matters
• How much carbon will we need to remove?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On January 28th, the European Commission hosted a long-awaited workshop on public funding for permanent CDR. Expectations were high - maybe too high?

What came out of it and what is lined up for funding of CDR in Europe? Both Eve (in person) and Sebastian (remote) attended, and are bringing you all the insights you need to know.

Tune in to find out more

Links:

• Eve Tamme: LinkedIn and Website
• Sebastian Manhart: LinkedIn and Website
• Sebastian’s critique on the report presented during the workshop.
• Official EU page for CDR funding (workshop recording should be uploaded here soon)
• Carbon Gap event on February 18th on CDR Funding in Europe

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.