By Laurie Fitzmaurice, President
This story first appeared in Euractiv
When it comes to the debate surrounding EU climate action, competitiveness hasn’t always resonated – but it’s officially back as the climate buzzword for Brussels and other EU capitals.
Europe cannot afford to fall behind and lose its competitive edge in the race to climate neutrality, nor does it have to – as clearly stated in the Draghi report – provided this ambition is matched by a coherent plan.
The Competitiveness Compass and recent Clean Industrial Deal form the basis of this plan with both highlighting the need for permanent carbon removals to support hard to abate sectors.
Laurie Fitzmaurice from leading carbon removals company Elimini, gives us the expert view on how carbon removals can help EU competitiveness and strengthen EU industry, and why robust standards are essential to avoid greenwashing.
Firstly, what are carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies and why is the EU supporting them?
Carbon dioxide removal technologies help to combat climate change by taking carbon dioxide out of the air and permanently storing it. There are various technologies and techniques that do this including direct air capture, bioenergy with CCS (BECCS), biochar and enhanced rock weathering.
The EU is supporting them because they quite literally put the ‘net’ in net zero. We cannot reach the target by mid-century without them. From 2030 onwards the EU needs high-quality carbon removals, like those from BECCS, to offset unavoidable emissions from heavy industry and other sectors which cannot completely decarbonise by 2050.
So, while the climate action taken over the last two decades has been dominated by technologies to reduce emissions, over the next two decades technologies to remove them will play an increasing role in meeting climate commitments.
Why are removals important to EU competitiveness?
Carbon removals support competitiveness in two ways. First, they help sectors that are difficult to decarbonise – like cement, agriculture, parts of heavy industry – to transition.
Hitting carbon neutrality by mid-century cannot mean closing or offshoring these sectors and the jobs they support. That would harm EU competitiveness. Their transition will take longer, so using carbon removal technologies to remove these emissions in the meantime, alongside emissions reductions, makes sense economically while also addressing climate change.
Second, developing in-country carbon removal technologies in the EU is a major economic opportunity. McKinsey estimates carbon removals markets could be a $1.2 trillion industry by 2050, and the EU has an opportunity to ensure it can be a key player in these markets – or investment will go elsewhere.
What policy is needed for carbon removals?
The EU has made a good start on policies to support carbon removals. Last year it adopted a certification framework for carbon removals, a critical first step toward ensuring that carbon removals in the EU are of high integrity, trusted and prevent greenwashing.
However, without a wider policy framework (more on that below) the EU risks getting left behind other regions. In recent years, the US has emerged as a global leader in financing and incentivising the supply of carbon removal technologies. Key policies such as the Inflation Reduction Act, tax reductions, and direct government procurement programmes matched by private entities, have created a highly attractive environment for CDR companies to establish and expand their operations in the US rather than the EU.
Keeping the pace with rapid policy development and implementation over the next two years is critical. Creating early demand for carbon removal credits will help get the industry up and running. The EU can do that by supporting voluntary markets through legislation like the Green Claims Directive, currently going through trilogues.
Integration of carbon removal credits into the EU ETS will also be important, helping to encourage demand and create longer term certainty to unlock investment. The recently published Clean Industrial Deal reiterated that the review of the ETS Directive in 2026 is opportunity to start this process.
The EU also needs a comprehensive CDR strategy, including a business model, to support both the supply and demand for these technologies. The upcoming revision of the EU Climate Law provides a good opportunity. A separate sub-target for permanent carbon removals, aligned against an overall reduction target, would send a strong signal to investors and provide reassurance that removals do not undermine the ambition for emissions reductions.
Regulatory simplification is also a priority, so it is important to stress the importance of ensuring coherence with other pieces of legislation and minimising administrative burden. In that context, it will also be important to coordinate approaches across the EU member states to ensure that countries explore their potential for CDRs and support those technologies.
Which technologies should the EU be considering?
The short answer is all of them. We likely need a range of carbon removal technologies to hit net zero by mid-century and different member states will need different technologies.
BECCS – which stands for bioenergy with carbon capture and storage – is a carbon removal technology ready to be deployed at scale today. It is also the only carbon removal technology that simultaneously produces 24/7 renewable energy, giving it the added benefit of helping meet clean power and energy security goals.
Yet BECCS contributions are not always recognised in EU policy, despite important scientific evidence that supports its use.
We’re working with the Commission and other partners in Europe, as well as in the US and UK, to deploy BECCS at scale. We believe it can pay a significant role in removing existing emissions now, as well as taking down the stock of historic emissions in the long term.
3/18/2025