For several years, the global focus of climate action has been to reduce GHG emissions. But now it is time to also focus on negative emissions; to actively remove carbon from the atmosphere for sequestration or conversion.

By 2030, we need to capture 800 million tons of CO2 globally to deliver on the Paris Agreement. This calls for immediate global attention, collaboration, and investments up to 160 billion USD – tenfold the total investments in the past decade (IEA, 2020).

A range of different carbon removal solutions currently exists; however, innovation is still highly needed to reduce costs and accelerate implementation. The solution landscape span is broad; covering both engineered solutions that can capture carbon dioxide emissions, from point sources in power and industrial plants or via Direct Air Capture (DAC), and directly store or further utilize the carbon in products or services. Furthermore, we need nature-based solutions to pull out carbon from the air, both from land and ocean.

To improve and deploy these technologies at scale, we need the necessary framework conditions and supporting ecosystems. That entails strengthening research and development efforts and international partnerships, as well as funding and support structures for new ventures and supporting policies.

North America, Europe, and China are expected to lead the innovation in carbon removal technologies in the 2020s.

Especially, the US is a global frontrunner with strong R&D, political incentives and improved conditions for investments as well as innovative startups and corporates are part of the story of the progress in North America. Neither in California, the focus on CCUS/carbon removal is to be overlooked. In early 2020, California declared that CCUS is necessary to achieve its goal of becoming CO2 neutral by 2045.

In Denmark, the national strategy for investments in green research, technology, and innovation has set a clear focus with Carbon Removal and Power-to-X, being two of the four so-called green research missions that constitute the mentioned strategy. Based on increased funding for these missions, a call for roadmaps was announced earlier this year, resulting in two ‘Green CCUS roadmaps’ contributed from two different partnerships across the Danish ecosystem (research institutions, companies, public authorities, and public organizations). The two roadmaps illustrate how partnerships across the value chain are needed and emphasize collaboration efforts that are important in the short-term, mid-term, and long-term to create a fossil-free future.

On the policy and regulatory side, Denmark announced a CCS strategy this summer, and the CCSU strategy will follow this fall.

To accelerate innovation and reduce costs, we need to collaborate across the Atlantic, across disciplines, and across sectors. A strong joint research and development effort can contribute to generating knowledge and accelerating applications of carbon removal technologies.

US and Denmark have recently signed an MoU focused on Clean Energy Research and Science Collaboration. This MoU creates the framework for more collaboration between Danish and US research institutions and companies and will be implemented through concrete action plans in the coming years.

To spur the discussions on collaborative opportunities and explore mutual areas of interest, Innovation Centre Denmark in Silicon Valley together with the Danish Energy Agency and State of Green hosted a virtual carbon removal summit with US partners such as Carbon180 and AirMiners.

The summit will bring the carbon removal ecosystems on both sides of the Atlantic together and identify gaps and opportunities for potential future partnerships. Panel discussions and feedback from participants will also be used to plan follow-up sessions with deep-dive discussions on topics of mutual interest.

1. Carbon Virtual summit

Kicking off transatlantic collaboration with Carbon Virtual Summit 2021 – The Road to Zero, towards more Denmark-US collaboration on Carbon Removal.

2. Deep dive sessions

To get the ball rolling, the identified gaps and opportunities will be unfolded in sessions following the summit by a series of deep dive virtual roundtable discussions in the Fall of 2021.

3. Danish delegation visit to the U.S.

Based on the virtual summit, key stakeholders and topics will be identified and form the base for the planning of a Danish delegation visit to USA. The visit will enable leading actors from the Danish and US carbon removal ecosystems (research institutions, government entities, and companies) to meet and take action together via concrete partnerships.

4. Future collaboration

All activities are planned in order to build trust, understanding and find common ground. With this four step effort, Innovation Centre Denmark in Silicon Valley wishes to contribute to the creation future cooperation and specific projects under the auspices of the MoU and other carbon removal initiatives.

We hope you will join us in building more collaboration between the US and Denmark and accelerating carbon removal activities globally on the road towards zero.