Nature – Merfort et al. (2025): Separating CO₂ emission from removal targets comes with limited cost impacts
Anne Merfort, Jessica Strefler, Gabriel Abrahão, Nico Bauer, Tabea Dorndorf, Elmar Kriegler, Gunnar Luderer, Leon Merfort & Ottmar Edenhofer, IN: Nature Communications, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-60606-7
Net-zero commitments have become the focal point for countries to communicate long-term climate targets. However, to this point it is not clear to what extent conventional emissions reductions and carbon dioxide removal (CDR) will contribute to net-zero. An integrated market for emissions and removals with a uniform carbon price delivers the economically efficient contribution of CDR to net-zero. Yet it might not fully internalise sustainability risks of CDR and hence could lead to its overuse. In this study, the authors explore the implications of separating targets for emissions and for removals delivered by novel CDR in global net-zero emissions pathways with the Integrated Assessment Model REMIND.