The EU has provisionally agreed on a framework that defines technologies used to remove carbon from the atmosphere as part of climate change mitigation efforts.

The voluntary framework is intended to speed up the deployment of carbon removal and soil emission reduction activities across the EU.

Carbon removal technologies are often seen as a solution to the challenge of limiting global warming to within 2°C above pre-industrial levels. They could be particularly useful for hard-to-abate sectors such as aviation and certain industrial processes.

The European Commission initially proposed regulations to create the framework in November 2022 as a first step towards the further integration of carbon removal schemes into EU climate policy.

With lots of possible technologies falling under the banner, the EU legislation will include an open definition of what defines carbon removal in line with the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

It will cover permanent carbon removal (storing...