Investing in Carbon Dioxide Removals
A new analytical and policy paradigm
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13068058 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Mark Workman (0000-0001-6121-9119, Imperial College London, corresponding author), Aoife Marie Brophy (University of Oxford), Aoife Brophy, Astha Wagle (University of Oxford), Madison Cuthbertson (Capital Group (United States)), Lacey Mccormack (0000-0002-5362-0540, The Royal British Legion), Lauren Mccormack (The Royal British Legion), Edoardo Taricco (Imperial College London), Quillan Shaw (Imperial College London), Jordan Calverley (University of Oxford) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 135 |
| Pages | 104669-104669 |
| Publication date | 2026-03-21 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Energy Research & Social Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2214-6296 • E-ISSN: 2214-6326 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.erss.2026.104669 |
| OpenAlex | W7139989088 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 30 |
Carbon dioxide removals (CDR) have become central to climate policy. Current policy approaches, however, are insufficient to create the basis for CDR technologies to scale because they are not yet aligned with the complexity shaping the emerging sector. In this article, we provide an approach to understanding the characteristics of CDR which we argue is composed of both market-creation and market-led complexity. Our engagement with market actors since 2020 suggests that we have entered this new paradigm of complexity earlier than was the case for renewables and in a different way due to the nature of demand. We illustrate how these complexity characteristics are not well captured by existing tools that support policymaking. And we provide an alternative approach to the support of decision-making which is both exploratory and participatory in nature. We call for governments to embrace new tools to facilitate engagement between the public and private sector actors in ways that can more directly capture the sector's complexity. Public-private collaborations for the next phase of CDR investment will be needed to allow governments to both guide the sector whilst also providing a backstop to risk for private sector partners. Participatory and dialectic stakeholder deliberation processes should be integrated throughout analysis, policy design and cross-sector approaches rather than being thought of as separate in order to facilitate timely, targeted interventions that are robust to different possible futures
Citizen journalism · Deliberation · Investment (military · Order (exchange · Private sector · Public sector · Scale (ratio · Stakeholder · Stakeholder engagement · Carbon Dioxide Capture Technologies · Climate Change and Geoengineering · Sustainability and Climate Change Governance
Industrial metabolism and the linkages between economics, ethics and the environment
Anticipatory Regulation
Developing carbon dioxide removal policy and anticipatory perspectives in the United Kingdom and United States
Establishing a large-scale Greenhouse Gas Removal sector in the United Kingdom by 2030
Climate policy decision making in contexts of deep uncertainty - from optimisation to robustness
Decision making in contexts of deep uncertainty - An alternative approach for long-term climate policy
Carbon removal and the empirics of climate delay
The UK net-zero target
A robust decision-making approach in climate policy design for possible net zero futures
"The Market for "Lemons
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |