Seizing the Industrial Carbon Removal Opportunity

The report outlines the commercial and climate imperatives for heavy industries to adopt carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies. It identifies synergies where industrial waste, infrastructure, and expertise can accelerate the scale-up of biogenic, geochemical, and synthetic CDR. The document provides a framework for monetization through carbon credits, green premiums, and government incentives, while warning against 'mitigation deterrence'—the risk that CDR replaces essential decarbonization efforts.

• Heavy industries are uniquely positioned to scale carbon removal due to their existing infrastructure and expertise in managing the massive material flows required. To remove one billion tons of CO2, the world needs either one to five billion tons of rocks or minerals for geochemical approaches, over 3,000 terrawatt-hours of low carbon energy for synthetic approaches, or nearly one billion tons of dry biomass for biogenic approaches.
• Integrating carbon removal offers diverse revenue streams and cost-saving opportunities. Potential financial gains include the sale of carbon credits on voluntary and compliance markets, 'green premiums' for low-carbon products, and the transformation of waste streams—such as industrial tailings, slags, and waste heat—into valuable feedstocks or energy sources.
• The report identifies three primary categories of carbon removal based on feedstock: biogenic (sustainable biomass), geochemical (alkaline minerals or rocks), and synthetic (engineered systems using low-carbon energy). No single method is expected to reach the required gigaton scale alone, necessitating a diversified portfolio of approaches.
• There is a significant risk of 'mitigation deterrence,' where the availability of carbon removal is used to justify delaying or avoiding the decarbonization of industrial practices. The report emphasizes that carbon removal cannot replace the need for drastic emission cuts, as the maximum projected capacity for all CDR options by 2050 is less than 15 GtCO2 annually, far below current annual emissions of approximately 40 GtCO2.
• Government policy is critical to making industrial carbon removal economically viable. Key recommendations for policymakers include establishing predictable carbon pricing, streamlining permitting processes, and providing direct incentives such as the United States's 45Q tax credit, which pays $180 per ton of permanently removed carbon via direct air capture.
• Proper carbon accounting is essential to ensure climate claims are defensible and to avoid double-counting. High-standard accounting for compensation claims must evaluate additionality (proving the activity wouldn't happen without extra funding), durability (the length of time CO2 remains stored), and the risk of reversal.

APA

RMI (2025). Seizing the Industrial Carbon Removal Opportunity. https://rmi.org/resources/seizing-the-industrial-carbon-removal-opportunity/

Chicago

RMI. Seizing the Industrial Carbon Removal Opportunity. 2025. https://rmi.org/resources/seizing-the-industrial-carbon-removal-opportunity/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=Seizing the Industrial Carbon Removal Opportunity |date=30 April 2025 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/seizing-the-industrial-carbon-removal-opportunity/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2025seizing, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{Seizing the Industrial Carbon Removal Opportunity}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2025}, month = apr, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/seizing-the-industrial-carbon-removal-opportunity/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }