A Government-Led Advance Market Commitment for Carbon Removal

The document identifies a significant funding and deployment gap for carbon removal, estimating a need for at least 100 megatons per annum (Mtpa) and $20 billion per year by 2035. It proposes a government-led Advance Market Commitment (AMC) as a mechanism to guarantee future markets, reduce costs through economies of scale, and harmonize global standards. The paper provides a design framework for such an AMC, covering product eligibility, procurement processes, and cross-border funding, while outlining the complementary roles of corporations, philanthropy, NGOs, and academia.

• To maintain the possibility of achieving midcentury climate targets, the world needs a diverse portfolio of carbon removal approaches reaching at least 100 megatons per annum (Mtpa) by 2035, requiring approximately $20 billion in annual funding by that date.
• Current funding for high-durability carbon removal is insufficient to drive necessary cost reductions, with only about 1 Mtpa of such removal occurring as of 2024 and total funding to date at approximately $25 billion.
• A government-led AMC can address critical industry gaps by guaranteeing funding, catalyzing deployment, driving cost reductions through learning and economies of scale, and facilitating the harmonization of global standards.
• While an AMC is effective for demand-pull and standard-setting, it is unlikely to solve the problem of shared infrastructure, such as CO2 transport and storage networks, which requires different government planning and collective action tools.
• The design of an AMC involves critical trade-offs regarding product eligibility; focusing only on high-durability removals supports nascent tech but may exclude countries with high potential for low-durability solutions, while a broad scope increases operational complexity.
• Governments participating in an AMC can gain strategic advantages, including visibility into the frontier of technology development, a leadership role in shaping global industry standards, and the ability to spur domestic economic growth and job creation.
• Carbon removal offers potential co-benefits beyond climate mitigation, such as reducing wildfire risks through biomass burial, improving soil health via terrestrial enhanced weathering, and mitigating ocean acidification through electrochemical alkalinity production.
• The document suggests a parallel track of government action: initiating a multistakeholder design and launch process for an AMC while simultaneously integrating carbon removal into long-term national climate planning and compliance mechanisms.

APA

Deich, N., Healy, E., Kirley, M., Pike, D., & Wood, I. (2025). A Government-Led Advance Market Commitment for Carbon Removal. RMI. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/dlm_uploads/2025/10/rmi-2025-october-gov-led-AMC-for-CDR-1.pdf

Chicago

Deich, Noah, Elizabeth Healy, Matt Kirley, Daniel Pike, and Isabel Wood. A Government-Led Advance Market Commitment for Carbon Removal. RMI, 2025. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/dlm_uploads/2025/10/rmi-2025-october-gov-led-AMC-for-CDR-1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Deich |first1=Noah |last2=Healy |first2=Elizabeth |last3=Kirley |first3=Matt |last4=Pike |first4=Daniel |last5=Wood |first5=Isabel |title=A Government-Led Advance Market Commitment for Carbon Removal |publisher=RMI |date=October 2025 |url=https://rmi.org/app/uploads/dlm_uploads/2025/10/rmi-2025-october-gov-led-AMC-for-CDR-1.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{deich2025governmentled, author = {Deich, Noah and Healy, Elizabeth and Kirley, Matt and Pike, Daniel and Wood, Isabel}, title = {{A Government-Led Advance Market Commitment for Carbon Removal}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2025}, month = oct, url = {https://rmi.org/app/uploads/dlm_uploads/2025/10/rmi-2025-october-gov-led-AMC-for-CDR-1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }