Denmark has a clear goal: Becoming a carbon-neutral society by 2050. To reach this goal, we have no choice but to start removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, therefore Denmark is prioritizing and investing heavily in CCUS and Power-to-X (PtX) initiatives as part of the National Strategy for investments in green research, technology, and innovation. However, we need to accelerate the development to reach our goals and must solve them together. The US has proven to be a global frontrunner on technology development within carbon removal, which offers great potential for collaboration between the two countries.

Therefore, it only makes sense for Denmark to build on the already existing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the US Department of Energy (DoE) and Denmark with a focus on Clean Energy research and science collaboration. It is crucial to move the carbon removal agenda forward and ensure longtime collaborations between the US and Denmark in the Carbon Removal and CCUS space. Innovation Centre Denmark (ICDK) is dedicated to supporting and facilitating collaboration, and therefore initiated the project “Road to Zero towards more Denmark-US collaboration on Carbon Removal” including a Danish delegation visit to California in May 2022.

Laying the ground work

Finding mutual ground and building trust is the groundwork for collaboration. Last year ICDK Silicon Valley initiated the first preliminary steps on the road to zero by launching a Carbon Virtual Summit in collaboration with partners; State of Green, Carbon180 and AirMiners. During the summit, the Carbon Removal community discussed R&D with leading entrepreneurs within Carbon Removal. Furthermore, they discussed how we could get the ball rolling in the Carbon Removal space. The Carbon Virtual Summit led to several deep dives and meetings following up. (Read more about the summit here)

Additionally, during the summit key stakeholders and topics were identified and formed the base for the Danish delegation visit to California in May. The purpose of the visit was to enable leading actors from the Danish and US carbon removal ecosystems (research institutions, government entities, and companies) to meet and collaborate on taking action by forming partnerships.

The delegation consisted of a combined group of 15 key stakeholders from the Danish CCUS ecosystem across government, research, and commercial stakeholders. This included representatives from four universities, the Ministry of Higher Education, the Danish Energy Agency, The Danish Association of Research and Technology Organizations (GTS), a philanthropic foundation, a private investor, relevant clusters, and a start-up. The purpose of such a diverse group was to bring all aspects and different voices across the Danish ecosystem together and have them around the table together for discussion.

In order for the group to connect and find mutual ground, ICDK hosted a workshop in Denmark for the Carbon Removal delegation prior to the visit to California. At the workshop, the delegation had the opportunity to connect across organizations and clusters and prepare to meet with US stakeholders within Carbon Removal in California. The intended outcome of the workshop was to map out the opportunities and challenges within Carbon Removal from a Danish perspective. This would allow the delegation to focus on the most critical topics to address and discuss with the US Carbon Removal and CCUS community during their meetings in California.

Connecting the US-DK Ecosystems

Some of the key challenges in carbon removal include:

1. How do we develop new technology?
2. How do we create a carbon removal market?
3. How do we support the technologies to scale?

Both Denmark and California are trying to find a solution to these challenges.

To explore how Denmark and California could work together on the matter, the Danish delegation visit to California lasted five days, and gave the key stakeholders the chance to meet the leading stakeholders in California including meeting with start-ups, investors, corporates, researchers, and the US government.

The week was kicked off with a networking event, “Carbon Connect” hosted in collaboration with Invest in Denmark, where keynote speaker Julio Friedmann, Chief Scientist and Head Carbon Wrangler at Carbon Direct, set the scope for the coming week. Friedmann addressed the urgency of harnessing and capturing CO2, which entails innovation and investments including new regulations, new technologies, and new business models that can support a circular carbon dioxide economy.

During the week, the delegation visited leading researchers from both UC Berkeley, Stanford University, Lawrence Livermore National Lab, and Berkeley Labs where they discussed leading technology, research collaboration, and explored the challenges related to scale up of carbon removal technologies.

The delegation also met with California State legislators discussing how governments can support and create the framework that is necessary to guide the work of Carbon Removal in terms of regulation and legislation. During the visit at the California Government in Sacramento, the delegation witnessed the passing of the SB120 Bill on CCUS (See LinkedIn post from delegation participant here).

Connecting entrepreneurs with the Danish delegation

One of the key challenges in carbon removal is to encourage “more shots on goals”. Meaning there is a need for support so more innovators work on technologies and solutions for the carbon removal challenge.

In Silicon Valley, the vibrant ecosystem of start-ups and innovators creates a strong community of next-generation entrepreneurs who support each other towards that goal. In order for the delegation and the Silicon Valley entrepreneurship ecosystem to meet, Innovation Centre Denmark and AirMiners organized a networking event in Silicon Valley.

Takeaways from Silicon Valley and next steps towards collaboration

Throughout the week, it was clear that Denmark and California share common goals and challenges. It was also clear that there is still a need for supporting innovators through both the “Valleys of Death,” from research to market and from market to scale. New promising technologies are on the rise and the carbon removal market is slowly gaining more interest and scaling. However, we still have a long way to go and need to create the best framework for researchers and innovators to develop the next generation of technologies. Through knowledge exchange and collaboration, Denmark and California will explore how to support each other to create the necessary framework for research and development.

One of the take-aways from the week was the need for more collaboration cross the Danish stakeholders, including a common narrative and bringing together the Danish ecosystem to coordinate across the communities creating a whole entity, ensuring connectivity, coordination, and support in setting the direction for the entrepreneurs and innovators.

As an immediate step, we will explore the potential of bringing a delegation from the US to Denmark to include the US carbon community in the current Danish activities. This will ensure that the dialogue and knowledge sharing will continue and the US-DK partnership and collaboration will strengthen even more.