🇩🇪 Germany just went big on CDR and we’re only getting started

💶 Last Friday, Germany made headlines with its announcement to spend almost €500m on CDR. This marks the pinnacle of a year full of positive news coming out of Europe’s biggest economy.

📄 Yesterday, the Board and Team of the Deutscher Verband für negative Emissionen e.V. (DVNE) met for our yearly (already third!) strategy day in Berlin. We reflected on what has been achieved and discussed the work ahead of us.

Couple of highlights I’d like to share:

1️⃣ We’ve come so far: it’s incredible we now actually get to discuss how 500 million euros should ideally be spent and potential follow-up programmes. This is exactly why we founded the DVNE.

2️⃣ Germany the multiplier: from the beginning, our vision has been “where Germany goes, Europe goes”. Now it is time to leverage German leadership to get momentum going at the European level.

3️⃣ Corporate Germany is moving: big, well-known German multinationals are entering the CDR space and the DVNE (watch this space). This is promising and crucial to help the industry (and our association) mature.

4️⃣ CO2 is not everything: we are called the German Association for Negative Emissions for a reason. Yes, CDR is a crucial component, but so is methane and other short-lived climate pollutants. Increasingly, this is where our attention also has to go.

5️⃣ We need ALL CDR: the DVNE represents the whole spectrum of CDR: soils, trees, biochar, enhanced weathering, oceans, BECCS, DACCS, etc. For climate policy to be truly effective, it needs to offer a holistic removals framework, not focus purely on nature or tech CDR.

📈 As for myself, I am so excited and grateful. When we had the idea for the DVNE in 2022, I would never have dreamed of having these conversations in 2025. We’ve built the foundation, scored the first successes, and now it’s time to double down and scale.

🧡 None of this would have been possible without the stellar team at the DVNE: Stefan Schlosser, Nadine Saken-Walsh, Philipp Rupp, Olivia Brauner, and Lilli Scharff. Then a huge thanks to my fellow board members Lisa Mangertseder, Magnus Drewelies, Aaron Neuville, and Stefanie Hauer, and Carolin Güthenke. An honourable mention also to Oscar Schily, former board member and my “co-founder” back in 2022.

🙏 And, of course, the 60+ members who are putting their trust into the Deutscher Verband für negative Emissionen e.V. (DVNE). We know it’s tough out there right now, and we are working hard every day to make sure you get the signals and funding you need to keep scaling.

🙋🏻‍♀️ If you’re building or buying CDR: Germany is becoming the #1 place in Europe. Reach out to us.

🚀 Auf geht’s!

Follow the conversation