💥 Controversial take: Should the EU should use foreign CDR to achieve net-zero? 💥

🇪🇺 A mantra in Europe so far has always been: we tidy up our own mess. In other words: Europe’s net-zero target has to be achieved with domestic reductions and removals.

🌏 What seemed an engraved certainty might now be changing: EU’s Commissioner for Climate Wopke Hoekstra has suggested that countries might be able to use international credits to support their decarbonisation efforts (read: UN Article 6 credits).

🇩🇪 Meanwhile in Germany, the majority party of the upcoming government, CDU/CSU, is trying to negotiate a similar proposal into the coalition treaty with the SPD.

😡 These advancements have unleashed huge criticism and opposition across Europe. The concern is that the EU is lowering its ambition and impact, with potentially devastating effects. Given our experiences with questionable Kyoto Protocol credits in the past, many are rightly worrying we could repeat the same mistake.

🏭 Just to be clear: these proposals are coming from a place of wanting to lower the burden on the European industry by introducing “flexibilities”. That means opening a dangerous door.

💡 For very different reasons, however, I do believe we should reconsider our approach: climate change is a global problem. A ton removed from the atmosphere is a ton removed, no matter where. Further, the potential for CDR in particular is infinitely higher in the global South.

💚 So, yes, I do think Europe should consider high-quality Article 6 REMOVAL credits for at least a fraction of its emissions. It has to be tightly regulated, limited in volume, and CDR only.

📅 Time to step right into this debate. This Thursday, 3rd of April, I will be discussing this hot topic with Eve Tamme on our next CDR Policy Scoop at 6pm CEST. Tune in here on LinkedIn live to join us, or listen to our podcast at your own leisure later: https://lnkd.in/dJKps2kq

⁉️ What is your take? I know my position is controversial, so I would love to hear yours. Let’s get a debate going in the comments to help us prep for the session on Thursday.

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