Dufour & Möllersten (2025): Nordic net-zero: counterbalancing residual emissions in the context of unevenly distributed BECCS potentials
Malin Dufour and Kenneth Möllersten, IN: Climate Policy, https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2025.2546116
Attaining net-zero emissions globally requires counterbalancing residual emissions with carbon dioxide removal (CDR), such as bio-energy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). BECCS potential is unevenly distributed, meaning that regions may have a ‘surplus’ or ‘deficit’ potential relative to the regional need for counterbalancing. Market mechanisms can be used to transfer BECCS outcomes from one region with surplus BECCS potential to another with deficit potential. The authors analyse the potential for such trade within the Nordic countries. They showed that Sweden has a significant theoretical surplus BECCS potential of at least 19 MtCO₂/year compared to what is needed to achieve its net-zero target, which could be realized and transferred to other countries based on e.g. Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.