IOGP response to the consultation on certification of carbon removals – EU rules

This document provides IOGP’s input to the EU public consultation (questionnaire) on the certification of carbon removals – EU rules.

IOGP supports the development of certification of carbon removals that, according to the latest IPCC's report Climate Change 2022, are an essential and unavoidable tool to achieve net-zero GHG emissions.

Context

This initiative will propose EU rules on certifying carbon removals. The Commission aims to expand sustainable carbon removals and encourage the use of innovative solutions to capture, recycle and store CO2 by farmers, foresters and industries. This represents a necessary and significant step towards integrating carbon removals into EU climate policies.

Key Recommendations

The main criteria to define the types of carbon removals that EU climate policies should incentivize is the duration of carbon storage.

The mechanism to be developed should include the following key aspects:

• It should be based on a robust Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) framework to ensure that emissions are accurately and consistently monitored, reported, and verified by independent third-party entities; based on a robust life-cycle analysis
• It should be designed such that it can evolve over time accommodating new technologies, new carbon removal solutions and new MRV methodologies, including best practices developed within the voluntary markets, without losing robustness, stability, and transparency
• It should be based on a transparent and harmonized framework across the EU to enable cross-border tradability of certificates to foster financial incentives for investment in carbon removal technologies

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