Netherlands must focus on CO2 removal, and not just with trees: Advisory Council

To achieve the climate goals, the Netherlands quickly needs a new industry that removes CO2 from the atmosphere. And it has to do more than plant more trees. The Scientific Climate Council (WKR) has issued this advice to the Cabinet. “We have to start now; otherwise the technology will not be ready in time to play the role that is desperately needed in 2035,” said WKR chairman Heleen de Coninck.

To encourage companies to get started on CO2 removal, the WKR proposed a government purchasing program. “You can’t get this off the ground without active government intervention,” said De Coninck. This purchase costs money, but the experts point out that certificates for CO2 removal are also worth money. The government may later be able to sell some of it to companies that retain unavoidable emissions.

According to the council, CO2 removal is indispensable to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. However, sectors such as aviation and agriculture cannot yet be made completely emission-free. Any remaining emissions must be compensated for in some other way. Moreover, according to the experts, measures are needed to keep the temperature increase below 1.5 degrees or to reduce it again.

Planting forests is a well-known short-term solution. However, forests can burn down, releasing CO2 back into the atmosphere. The WKR recommends focusing primarily on measures that permanently remove CO2 from the atmosphere.

A well-developed but controversial method is using biomass for energy production in combination with the capture and storage of CO2. The challenge remains: where do you get enough biomass without cutting down massive forests? Removing CO2 directly from the air with special installations is also an option, although this is relatively expensive and requires a lot of energy.

A third technique is mineralization: rocks like basalt and olivine can absorb CO2 during weathering. That process “can be significantly accelerated by grinding the rocks and spreading them, for example, on land or in water,” the council said. CO2 can also mineralize when producing cement. In this way, the greenhouse gas is converted into building material.

The WKR added that CO2 removal must not become an excuse to be less hasty in reducing emissions.