Who cares about carbon dioxide removal? Assessing actors, policy positions, and participation modes within European and United Nations public consultation processes

In addition to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, alternate strategies to mitigate climate change are entering the policy debate, such as Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR), which aims to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere. Despite being in the early stages of development, these interventions have already been indicated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as necessary contributors to the net zero transition. CDR has been at the centre of two public consultation processes in 2023, one by the European Union and one by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. These two consultation processes provide an opportunity to have an initial understanding of the types of actors participating in such consultations and their positioning regarding key issues in the governance and deployment of CDR interventions. This study maps the stakeholders participating in these consultations according to their defining characteristics and analyses the content of their submissions to identify the main arguments presented. In both cases, most participants are based in the Global North, are for-profit actors and focus their activities on farming or greenhouse gas removal. The analysis of the content of the submissions reveals a wide range of positions that can be divided into expansive and restrictive. Expansive stances are mostly emphasized by actors from the for-profit sector, whereas the restrictive positions are emphasized by non-governmental organizations. This divide suggests the need for a governance set-up capable of balancing diverse perspectives while ensuring an equitable and effective deployment of these technologies to address the global challenge of climate change.