Mind the Gap: How States Can Advance Carbon Dioxide Removal Despite Federal Backsliding

Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) will be needed, alongside rapid and deep emissions cuts, to achieve the temperature limits set in the Paris Agreement. Various CDR techniques are being explored, and some have already been deployed, but only at small scales. Removals are currently estimated at just 2.2 gigatons per year but will likely need reach somewhere between 4 and 9 gigatons by 2050 if global temperature goals are to be met. This scale up will not be possible without strong government support but, in the U.S., federal support for CDR seems to be waning. Recent cuts to federal funding and other programs risk derailing CDR development at a time when it needs to be speeding up. This event will explore whether and how U.S. states might help to fill the gap left by this federal backtracking. Expert panelists will discuss innovative legal and policy tools states are already using, or might use in the future, to drive the required scale-up of CDR.