During the first 18 months of the project (June 2020 – November 2021), NEGEM work concentrated on understanding the characteristics and limitations related to negative emission technologies and practices. The main re sults are described in detail in the deliverables available at this page and include the following:

• The sustainability of several negative emission technologies and practices was studied by Life Cycle Assessment methods and key performance indicators (KPIs) defined in the beginning of the project. The studies include: terrestrial (D1.2) and marine (D1.3) negative emissions technologies and practices, and bioenergy combined with CO₂ capture and storage (BECCS) (D1.4).
• The update of models used in NEGEM (LPJmL, MONET, TIMES-VTT) has started to enable the modelling for NEGEM scenarios. Updates were made on various factors including e.g. vegetation dynamics, limitations on biomass supply (D3.1), and data on new negative emission technologies (D7.2).
• Two public databases were published, related to negative emission technologies and bio-geophysics (D4.1, D4.2).
• Several commercialisation mechanisms for negative emissions have been studied (D2.1), as well as specific features of nature based vs. engineered solutions (D2.2).
• Burden sharing principles for carbon dioxide removals in EU Member States were studied (D4.3).
• Social acceptance and stakeholder perceptions of NETPs have been studied in several workshops, as well as by sentiment analysis on literature (D5.3).
• Definitions and accounting rules for negative emissions have been discussed, studied, and disseminated (D6.2).
• The work towards NEGEM scenarios and pathways has been started by mapping existing mitigation scenarios, and by workshops on NEGEM vision and pathways (D8.1).

Policy Related Activities

Several policy related NEGEM activities were carried out during the first 18 months, in particular:

• The European Commission’s proposal for the first European Climate Law aiming for climate neutrality by 2050 was discussed in NEGEM, and the results were published as an opinion paper in Nature in January 2021.  NEGEM contributed to the discussions on the European Climate Law by providing information to relevant policymakers on the importance of keeping emission reductions and carbon removals separatein intermediate climate targets.
• In November 2020, NEGEM organised a workshop to discuss the principles of carbon dioxide removal, concluding that tracing the origin and fate of CO2 is a core requirement which should be accompanied by a robust mechanism to monitor, report and verify the carbon flows and carbon storage.
• In December 2020, a clear, shared, medium-to-long term vision on NETPs, with a focus on their sustainable potentials and on their role in contributing to the climate targetsat EU and global levels, was discussed in NEGEM workshop.

At COP26 in Glasgow, NEGEM participated in a panel discussion “Policy, business, and social challenges for carbon dioxide removals and carbon capture & storage” in the EU-Pavilion. In addition, a dedicated NEGEM side-event “The realistic deployment potential of Carbon Dioxide Removal” was organised by Bellona.