Tracking greenhouse gas removals

The report identifies significant gaps in the monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) infrastructure for carbon dioxide removal (CDR), noting that existing frameworks are primarily designed for emission reductions rather than removals. It highlights inconsistencies in how permanence, system boundaries, and additionality are treated across different voluntary and compliance standards. The authors recommend the development of dedicated methodologies for Direct Air Capture (DAC) and Bio-energy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), the adoption of dynamic baselines aligned with Paris Agreement targets, and a standardized approach to defining 'permanent' storage to prevent the overestimation of mitigation results.

• Current policy infrastructures for tracking GHG removals are in their infancy, with many removal approaches lacking methodologies entirely or using inconsistent ones, particularly regarding capture, transport, and underground storage.
• A critical distinction must be maintained between emission reductions and removals: storage of CO2 from fossil or geogenic sources constitutes an emission reduction, whereas storage of atmospheric or biogenic CO2 constitutes a removal.
• There is no global consensus on the time horizon required for storage to be considered 'permanent,' with proposals ranging from 55 years to 1,000 years or more.
• The report proposes 'dynamic baselines' that use an 'ambition coefficient' to lower the crediting baseline over time, eventually reaching zero or net-negative levels to align with national net-zero pathways.
• Many current CDR voluntary markets lack rigorous additionality testing, which is necessary to ensure that projects do not receive credits for activities that would have occurred anyway due to existing regulations or financial viability.
• Existing methodologies for biogenic carbon removal often inaccurately assume biomass is climate-neutral, failing to account for supply chain emissions, biomass growth/harvest imbalances, and indirect land-use leakage.
• There is a lack of transparency in the development of CDR methodologies, with many newer market developers failing to provide detailed documentation or conduct public consultations.

APA

Poralla, M., Honegger, M., Gameros, C., Wang, Y., Sacherer, A.-K., Ahonen, H.-M., Morena, L., & Michaelowa, A. (2022). Tracking greenhouse gas removals. Climate Strategies. https://climatestrategies.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Net-Rapido_Tracking-greenhouse-gas-removals.pdf

Chicago

Poralla, Matthias, Matthias Honegger, Carlos Gameros, Yuan Wang, Anne-Kathrin Sacherer, Hanna-Mari Ahonen, Lorena Morena, and Axel Michaelowa. Tracking greenhouse gas removals. Climate Strategies, 2022. https://climatestrategies.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Net-Rapido_Tracking-greenhouse-gas-removals.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{poralla2022tracking, author = {Poralla, Matthias and Honegger, Matthias and Gameros, Carlos and Wang, Yuan and Sacherer, Anne-Kathrin and Ahonen, Hanna-Mari and Morena, Lorena and Michaelowa, Axel}, title = {{Tracking greenhouse gas removals}}, institution = {Climate Strategies}, year = {2022}, month = apr, url = {https://climatestrategies.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Net-Rapido_Tracking-greenhouse-gas-removals.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }