🇪🇸 This week’s European carbon management spotlight: #Spain 🇪🇸

Spain currently has a timid carbon dioxide removal (#CDR) policy, with no clear targets. It focuses almost solely on ecosystem-based CDR (mostly regarding forests, agriculture and wetlands) with only slight mentions of CC(U)S for hard-to-abate sectors. What does Spain’s climate legislation look like? 🎯Spanish Climate Law sets a #netzero objective by 2050. Article 26 states that public entities should encourage citizens and private entities (especially in agriculture and forestry) in increasing the capacity to capture #CO2 from carbon sinks. 📉Spain’s Long-Term Climate Strategy states that emissions should be reduced by 90% (relative to 1990 emissions) and natural carbon sinks should remove the rest (at least 37 million tons of CO2 per year by 2050). 💶The Carbon Fund FES-CO2 provided €30 million in 2021 to projects reducing CO2 emissions; recently, actions that increase carbon sinks and acquisition of carbon credits abiding by UNFCCC international standards (e.g. Article 6 of the Paris Agreement) have been added to the list of eligible projects. 🇪🇺Spain’s Recovery and Resilience Plan, a major funding relief provided by the #EU, sets measures that could influence the CDR environment in the future, including reform of the industrial sector, setting research priorities, and funding for measures that protect Spanish ecosystems. Where does the potential for CDR lie in Spain? 🌳Ecosystem-based CDR is the focus at the moment, including afforestation and reforestation, wetlands management, and agroforestry. The National Common Agricultural Policy Strategic Plan alludes to improving the CO2 uptake of agricultural soils so enhanced weathering (#EW) could play a role - though only for large-scale agrarian operations at the moment because funding is an issue. 🏭Carbon capture, utitilisation and storage (#CCUS) is expected to become more central to decarbonise some hard-to-abate sectors, such as steel and cement production. 🌿Biogas plays an important role in Spain’s LTS. Bioenergy carbon capture and storage (#BECCS) could therefore become relevant. Spain seems to lag behind other European countries in terms of CDR policy infrastructure, though there are signs this might change. It will be interesting to see what happens when Spain holds the Presidency of the Council of the EU between July 1st and December 31st 2023 because its two focuses will be energy and European Governance, with 3 working pillars: green, social and digital. ❓What do you think the future of CDR in Spain holds? Anyone else you’d like to shout out? 🙌Shout out to those leading the way in carbon management in Spain: Cosora, Circle Carbon S.L., Biochar Initiatives Platform Spain, Carbon Vivo, Carbón Emergente, Azolla Projects, Regeneration Academy, Breakthrough Energy , Clean Tech for Europe, Climate Farmers.