Brander et al. (2026): Clarifying what is meant by greenhouse gas ‘removals’ and categorising types of ‘removal-related activities’
Matthew Brander, Derik Broekhoff and Maurice Bryson, IN: Climate Policy, https://doi.org/10.1080/17583004.2026.2625956
There is broad recognition that removals of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) will be required for counter-balancing emissions from hard-to-abate sectors to achieve net zero, and will also be necessary in the increasingly likely event of an emissions overshoot in order to return atmospheric concentrations of GHGs and temperature change below target levels. However, the term “removal” is open to imprecise usage, which is likely to result in confusion over which activities policy-makers, investors and carbon credit buyers wish to support, and what project developers and technology providers actually deliver. This commentary paper aims to clarify what is meant by “removals” by analysing the definitions from prominent sources and by proposing a precise definition of the term.