Every job has its treats. I have many in my job and one of them is undoubtedly being part of the European Commission’s expert group on carbon removals. It is a very rewarding setting with insightful discussions and stimulating knowledge exchange and, not least, it is great to be part of pushing the important issue of negative emissions forward. In this blog, I thought I would just briefly tell you what the mission is about.

I am one of about 80 people in the expert group and we started our work just over a year ago. We work on behalf of the European Commission to help get carbon removals into various legal frameworks. The background to the need is that there are companies that need negative emissions to counterbalance emissions that they cannot get away from and still be able to achieve net-zero emissions.

For carbon removals to be established as part of European policy, the Commission must solve issues such as:  what is a carbon removal, how should it be calculated? what is actually being bought and sold and how should it be reported? Definitions are needed and this is where we will contribute. Further ahead, the Commission’s specific task is, for example, to look at how permanent carbon removals can be included in emissions trading and which the Commission will report on in 2026.

What the Commission specifically expects from us in the expert group is that we will provide input to the various methodologies that will form the basis for the so-called delegated acts. The methodologies can, for example, be about how to measure and calculate carbon removals from a specific facility.

In the expert group we bring different perspectives to the work, mine as both Head of R&D at Stockholm Exergi and docent at KTH is above all to highlight why there is a need for a market for negative emissions and how market players react to different forms of framework. The market for permanent carbon removals has come a long way in its development during the last years and I want to describe how the market works. for. Many companies have set aggressive climate targets that they want to achieve, which means that in addition to large emission reductions, they need to counterbalance emissions where they lack alternatives. The expert group also forms a platform for discussing issues with other experts ranging from NGOs to researchers, agencies and business representatives.

In October, it is time for one of the year’s physical meetings on site in Brussels, when the methodologies for bio-CCS and DAC (Direct Air Capture) will be handled, then seminars are also waiting in between. I am really looking forward to the continuation, it is a great mission and our work in the expert group will continue for several years.

Dr. Fabian Levihn,
Head of Research and Development Stockholm Exergi, Docent (Associate Professor) Royal Institute of Technology – KTH.