This is good news I think. Bloomberg reports that
“The European Union is set to define what technologies can be used to permanently remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as it pursues its goal of being climate neutral by 2050.
The European Commission will outline rules for certifying tools such as Direct Air Carbon Capture and Storage, Bioenergy Carbon Capture and Storage and biochar, according to a document seen by Bloomberg News. All are deemed ‘permanent’ removal solutions, unlike nature-based fixes like reforestation, which rely on careful management over hundreds of years and can suffer from extreme weather events like fires.”
The US has standards in place already to qualify for 45Q tax credits and regulatory technology standards for underground injection wells and EPA regulations 40 CFR 98, subparts RR, UU and VV.
It’s important to distinguish these U.S. regulatory and tax credit definitions from “permanence” in voluntary carbon offsets, where permanence periods like 100 years are used and buffer pools are used to mitigate reversal risks. EPA regulations and tax credit programs require geological permanence, which is also what the EU seems to be aiming for as well. And thank goodness.
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