C-Sink to help boost Carbon Capture Technologies

EU Funded Global Collaboration Hub Aims To Accelerate Development of Carbon Capture Technologies

Crowdhelix’s new CO2 Removal Helix will bring together industry experts, leading academics, high-tech SMEs, policymakers and investors to accelerate the development and deployment of technologies that will remove carbon dioxide from our atmosphere.

Specifically designed to create synergies between stakeholders across multiple disciplines, the CO2 Removal Helix will foreground impact and bridge the gap between research, industry and investors to fast-track innovation.

Support for more Carbon Capture Technologies

Speaking at COP28 in Dubai, the leader of the CO2 Removal Helix, Professor Ondej Mašek from the University of Edinburgh, outlined why he believed interdisciplinarity and broad stakeholder engagement are central to the sector delivering on its potential.

“Building carbon removal technologies and systems is only part of the challenge facing this emerging sector”.

“We also need to be able to scale capacity and deploy those solutions if we are to extract the 5 – 16 gigatonnes of CO2 required to keep global warming to 1.5°C, according to research published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change”.

“That requires the rapid scaling of carbon removal research, alongside a simultaneous expansion of investment, manufacture and deployment of technology”.

“Overcoming that challenge requires experts and actors to collaborate across numerous fields and specialisms. Fortunately, the infrastructure that will help us do that is beginning to come together”.

Echoing Professor Mašek’s assessment, Crowdhelix CEO, Michael Browne, believes that recent announcements have signalled the emergence of a distinct sector that is attracting some of the world’s leading innovators and investors.

“The establishment of Stripe-owned company, Frontier, changed how investors see carbon removal technology”.

“In an instant, Frontier became the leading backer of early-stage carbon removal technologies having secured nearly $1 billion in funding from a group that included Alphabet, Shopify, Meta and McKinsey”.

“Since then, the conversations around carbon removal have become increasingly tangible”.

“We’re no longer talking about the technology in an aspirational way, real discourse around regulation is now taking place. The creation of the EU’s Carbon Removal Certification Framework expert group manifests this evolution”.

“At Crowdhelix, we want to create a focused open-innovation community that brings together stakeholders from across this rapidly growing sector”.

“If we can bring scientists, SMEs, regulators, policymakers and investors together at an early stage, I believe that we can help to accelerate the development and deployment of carbon removal technologies”.

The EU-funded C-Sink project is indicative of the rapid evolution of the carbon removal sector. The €5.2 million project seeks to lay the foundations for regulators to create a standardised and transparent European CO2 removal market.

The key project within the CO2 Removal Helix, C-Sink brings together 24 organisations from 11 different countries, each of whom possesses complementary skills and expertise in carbon removal technologies, climate law, carbon trading and stakeholder engagement.

The multidisciplinarity nature of the project symbolises how stakeholders are working together to establish regulations and standards that will propel innovation according to Professor Mašek.

“The carbon removal sector has been negatively influenced by a lack of regulation and high-quality standards”.

“The current self-regulated market relies on an unsatisfactory patchwork of third-party verification of the removals achieved at individual sites”.

“This has allowed low-quality carbon credits to enter the market, lowering credibility and prices to levels at which high-quality permanent removals cannot compete”.

“The purpose of the C-SINK project is to deliver a complete package of worked-up proposals to support a new, or amended, European legal/regulatory framework that brings high-quality carbon removals into the market”.

“If we can create trust through proper governance and standards, we will encourage the development of effective and safe carbon removal projects that can help the climate crisis”.

The CO2 Removal Helix is now open for membership. Researchers, academics, industry experts and regulatory professionals working across all related disciplines are invited to join and contribute to this exciting new community.

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