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๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง What does the Labour government mean for carbon dioxide removal (hashtag#CDR) in the United Kingdom? ๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง



๐ŸŒน On June 5th the Labour Party, led by Keir Starmer, won the UK general election in a landslide vote, ending 14 years of Conservative rule by the Tory Party.


๐Ÿ”Ž Letโ€™s dive into what this could mean for CDR. Even before the election, the UK has been a leader in integrating CDR into its climate policy:


๐ŸŽฏ The UKโ€™s national Net-Zero Strategy was one of the first to establish an engineered Greenhouse Gas Removal (GGR aka CDR) target.


๐Ÿ’ท Their Contract for Difference (hashtag#CfD) business model for CDR suggests to cover the difference between carbon credit prices and production costs (plus a markup) for 15 years to help attract private investments.


๐Ÿค The UK plans to integrate durable CDR into their ETS by 2026-2028 and are currently gathering feedback on three cap options theyโ€™re considering.

๐Ÿ‘ท The Labour government has now appointed Ed Miliband as the new Energy and Net Zero Secretary, a politician with a track record on climate change action. Itโ€™s still early days but here are some things we do know:


โšก One of Labour's top priorities is to become a โ€œclean energy superpowerโ€ by fostering the development of renewables and other green technologies to become a zero-carbon electricity by 2030.


๐Ÿ›๏ธ They also plan to establish an Office for Net Zero within the government to coordinate efforts to decarbonise the UK economy.


๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ Labour have said they want a closer relationship with the EU - without undoing Brexit - and are reportedly considering aligning the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) with the EU ETS which could expedite the adoption and implementation of CDR technologies across Europe.


๐ŸŒŸ This is all very promising. I am confident that the UK is on track to deliver some incredible policy in CDR. It is already home to the second most CDR companies globally, and is set to become even more attractive for entrepreneurs and investors in the space.


๐Ÿ’ฌ What is your take and what this new government means for GGR/CDR? Let's have a conversation on this post, share perspectives, and figure out what is lined up.


๐Ÿ‘‰ Particularly keen to hear you take: Eli Mitchell-Larson Lukas May, Tom Mills, Josh Burke FRSA, Helen Bray, Aaron Benjamin, Simon Manley, Glenn Morley, Marta Krupinska, Gabrielle Walker, Simon Puleston Jones, Natalia Dorfman, Kaya Axelsson, Ted Christie-Miller, Patrick Greenfield, Simon Evans, Greg De Temmerman, Adam Sipthorpe.




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