The Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) industry is growing rapidly across Europe. Ireland, with its natural resources, agricultural land, research expertise and clean energy ambition, is well-placed to lead.

CDRi estimates a CDR industry removing 10 million tonnes of CO₂ per year on the island of Ireland could support an estimated 10,000 jobs and add approximately €2 billion to GDP, based on the finding of Carbon Removal Canada.[1]

What is Carbon Dioxide Removal?

Carbon dioxide removal is the process of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it durably. CDR complements rapid emissions reduction efforts by neutralising unavoidable residual emissions from hard-to-abate sectors (such as aviation) and by addressing the historical build-up of CO₂ that continues to drive climate change. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2022 Sixth Assessment Report concluded that CDR is necessary to achieve net zero, both globally and nationally.[2]

The methods vary but the science is clear. Biochar carbon removal takes biomass that would otherwise decompose, stabilises it through heating, and returns the carbon to agricultural soil, while improving soil health in the process. Direct air capture draws air over chemicals or materials that extract CO₂ directly from the atmosphere. Enhanced rock weathering spreads finely ground rock across fields, where it reacts with atmospheric CO₂ naturally and quickly. All CDR methods share rigorous requirements for measurement, reporting and verification, which is essential for environmental integrity.

Europe’s scientific advisors are clear

The European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change advocates for robust, science-based targets for both emission reductions and removals. The EU is legally committed to reaching climate neutrality by 2050 at the latest and to pursuing net-negative emissions subsequently. According to the Board, removals are an essential requirement to counterbalance residual emissions from activities with currently no or limited mitigation alternatives.[3]

In its 2025 report, the Board warned of a serious decline in the EU’s natural carbon sink (the forests and soils that absorb CO₂) worsened by wildfires, droughts and floods. These carry significant costs, including rising insurance premiums as climate-driven disasters put strain on Irish households.

To close the gap, the Board recommended separate legal targets for emissions and removals, increased innovation funding and market incentives. The message is clear. Europe needs CDR, and Ireland should be a supplier, not a spectator.

A matter of fairness

Both the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council and the Climate Change Advisory Council have made clear that Ireland has significant ground to make up on emissions. Potential climate-related fines of €8–26 billion are on the horizon.[4] These fines represent public money that could fund housing, hospitals and schools.

It makes no sense to pay fines for emissions we have failed to reduce. A better outcome for our economy and our environment would be to invest those same resources in a world-class domestic CDR industry, which can support transformative employment opportunities and support high-value rural livelihoods throughout Ireland.

Seizing the opportunity

Accelerating CDR in Ireland requires action:

1. On supply, targeted financing would enable investment in first-of-a-kind projects and give early-stage CDR developers the confidence to build here.

2. On demand, government procurement of Irish CDR credits would create the stable revenue environment the industry needs to grow.

3. On innovation, Ireland’s universities and research institutions are already doing relevant work. Dedicated R&D support and innovation prizes would help turn that science into deployable solutions.

Other European countries are already moving forward. The longer Ireland waits, the harder it becomes to compete for the investment, talent and supply chains that define this emerging industry.

The moment to act is now

Ireland has the expertise, the natural resources and the drive to lead in carbon removal. What has been missing is urgency. CDR offers Ireland a genuine chance to lead in a critically important part of the global climate response. Restoring and protecting ecosystems through these solutions not only addresses Ireland and the EU’s climate goals but also provides a unique opportunity to strengthen Ireland’s competitiveness at the forefront of the global climate transition.

The CDR opportunity is real. The need is urgent. Let’s seize it.

Carbon Dioxide Removal Ireland is a non-profit organisation working to unlock the climate and economic benefits of carbon removal for Ireland.

Contact our team at hello@carbonremoval.ie to support the growth of the carbon removal industry in Ireland.

[1] This is scaled from the Canadian analysis which found that every megatonne of removal capacity creates over 1,000 jobs, with the GDP figure adjusted to reflect European rather than Canadian economic conditions: Tim Bushman and Na’im Merchant, “Ready for Removal: A Decisive Decade for Canadian Leadership in Carbon Dioxide Removal” (Carbon Removal Canada, November 2023). https://carbonremoval.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/CRC_ResearchReport_Ready_for_Removal.pdf

[2] IPCC (2022). Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Working Group III, Sixth Assessment Report, Chapter 12. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/chapter/chapter-12/

[3] European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change (2025). Scaling up carbon dioxide removals - Recommendations for navigating opportunities and risks in the EU. Publications Office of the European Union. https://climate-advisory-board.europa.eu/reports-and-publications/scaling-up-carbon-dioxide-removals-recommendations-for-navigating-opportunities-and-risks-in-the-eu

[4] Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, Ireland’s Climate Action and the Potential Costs of Missing Targets. https://www.fiscalcouncil.ie/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Irelands-climate-action-and-the-potential-costs-of-missing-targets.pdf>

Alongside essential emission reduction efforts, the development of carbon removal solutions is required for Ireland to achieve net zero. In the Climate Act and across all five Climate Action Plans from 2019 to 2025, carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is consistently identified as an essential component of any credible pathway to net zero. However, CDR remains without a dedicated target, strategy, or the regulations needed to turn legal commitments into measurable actions.

We recommend that Ireland take three concrete steps:

1. Set a binding CDR target for removals to achieve net zero and close the identified gap in Ireland’s carbon budget;

2. Develop a CDR Strategy that identifies which CDR methods will be deployed, where, when and at what scale, and how they will be supported by innovation and investment; and

3. Activate the CDR measures the Climate Act already requires, without which no target or strategy can translate into measurable action.

CDR and the Climate Act

The Climate Act provides that Ireland shall pursue and achieve by 2050 the transition to a climate resilient, biodiversity rich, environmentally sustainable and climate neutral economy (Objective). Under the Climate Act, a “climate neutral economy” means a sustainable economy and society where greenhouse gas emissions are balanced or exceeded by the removal of greenhouse gases.

The Climate Act’s Objective is supported by a programme of carbon budgets and sectoral emissions ceilings. Ireland’s Climate Action Plans annually lay out a roadmap of actions required to deliver the carbon budgets and sectoral ceilings. The carbon budget programme comprises three five-year budget periods (2021–2025, 2026–2030, and 2031–2035), with the second carbon budget period set at 200 MtCO₂eq., representing an average annual reduction in emissions of 8.3%.²

Ireland’s Long-term Strategy on Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction sets out, at least every 5 years, indicative pathways, beyond 2030, towards achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. Each strategy is required to specify enhancements to removals. Since 2019, successive Climate Action Plans and the Long-term Strategies on Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction have acknowledged the need for CDR.

The Climate Act requires the Minister for the Environment, when preparing a carbon budget and a sectoral ceiling, to recommend to the Government that a Minister may use removals to comply with the carbon budget and the relevant sectoral ceiling.³

The Climate Act also places a clear obligation on the Government to make regulations determining how removals are calculated, which removals may count towards a carbon budget or sectoral ceiling and how removals will be implemented.⁴ Those regulations have not yet been enacted. Without this regulatory framework in place, neither a CDR target nor a CDR strategy can translate into measurable action.

The Climate Act also enabled CDR projects to receive funding under the Climate Action Fund (CAF).⁵ The CAF was established to provide financial support to projects that will help Ireland achieve its climate and energy targets, and is committed to providing at least €500 million in government funding up to 2027. There is, however, no public indication that any CAF funding has been directed to CDR.

CDR and Climate Law

Climate Action Plan 2019 established that reaching net zero by 2050 would require residual emissions to be balanced by negative emissions technologies and increased afforestation.

The sectoral emissions ceilings approved in 2022 deliberately leave a portion of the required abatement unallocated.⁶ The sectoral ceilings assume 5.25 MtCO₂eq. in annual unallocated savings for the second carbon budget period (2026 to 2030), amounting to 26 MtCO₂eq. over that five-year period, which will require additional abatement measures to ensure Ireland meets its 2030 targets. This approach was anticipated in the 2020 Programme for Government, which recognised that Ireland would not be in a position to identify all the emerging technologies, evolving scientific consensus, or policies needed to meet its full ambition at the time of setting the ceilings. The additional abatement measures were to be identified ahead of 2026.

Amongst the potential options identified to close the gap are the implementation of new and emerging technologies, including hydrogen and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), in respect of which further research on operational and implementation feasibility, as well as emissions abatement potential, was identified as necessary.

More recently, Climate Action Plan 2024 acknowledged that Ireland’s climate action framework does not yet incorporate carbon removal strategies, but identified biochar and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) as potentially promising removal options within the second carbon budget period that could address part of the residual unallocated emissions gap.⁷ Feasibility work encompassing validation of emissions savings potential, cost estimation, impact assessment and roadmap development is to be completed. To coordinate this work, the plan establishes a Carbon Capture, Removals and Hydrogen Working Group under Action PW/24/4, specifically tasked with addressing the currently unallocated emissions savings.

This focus on CDR is consistent with the Objective. Ireland’s Long-term Strategy on Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction confirms that residual emissions will need to be balanced by sufficient levels of CDR from 2050 onwards. The strategy also identifies an explicit need to develop a coherent policy and legislative framework for what it calls “negative emissions technologies”, including CCS and direct air capture.⁸

Accordingly, CDR represents an anticipated and legally significant component of Ireland’s strategy for meeting its binding second carbon budget and achieving net zero by 2050. The question is no longer whether CDR will feature in Ireland’s climate objectives, but whether the necessary regulatory and legislative frameworks can be developed with sufficient urgency to ensure that CDR methods are operationally viable within the timeframes demanded by Ireland’s binding carbon budgets.

Time to Act

Ireland cannot afford to wait for CDR needs to be more urgent. The three recommendations below set out the concrete steps Ireland must take now to unlock the climate and economic benefits of CDR.

Recommendation 1: Set CDR targets for 2030 and 2050

Ireland is missing a clear, quantified removal target that signals genuine ambition and provides the long-term certainty that innovators need to act.

Ireland should set separate 2030 and 2050 legally binding targets for each of biological removals (e.g. forestry, peatland restoration and soil carbon sequestration) and technological removals (e.g. BECCS, biochar and direct air capture) reflecting the distinct permanence, risk profiles and readiness levels of each removal method. Distinguishing between permanent technological removals and temporary biological removals within any target-setting framework will be essential to ensuring environmental integrity and avoiding over-reliance on any single removal pathway while also creating economic opportunities for farmers and landowners.

Recommendation 2: Develop a comprehensive CDR strategy

Ireland needs a dedicated, CDR strategy that moves beyond ambition and into implementation. This is the vehicle for a coordinated approach that delivers. The Strategy should:

• identify a full portfolio of relevant CDR methods with method-specific deployment pathways for 2026 to 2030 and 2030 to 2050;

• establish a clear governance framework that coordinates delivery across relevant departments, and task the Carbon Capture and Removals Working Group with developing concrete recommendations on supply and demand incentives as well as mechanisms for incentivising private actors. These can include use of the Climate Action Fund;

• prioritise Ireland’s national and EU interests by investing in the necessary workforce and research infrastructure; and

• align CDR deployment with EU climate objectives and the interests of rural and farming communities.

Recommendation 3: Implement removal regulations

The Government should move without delay to implement removal regulations that:

• align with the EU’s Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming Regulation and the approved CDR methodologies it establishes;

• specify which removal methods are eligible to count towards Ireland’s carbon budgets and sectoral emissions ceilings; and

• create the investment certainty that project developers, landowners, and investors require to commit capital and resources to CDR deployment.

Ireland has the climate ambition to become a leader in CDR. Implementing our three recommendations will develop a CDR industry that delivers for our climate, our workforce and our economy. It is time to act.

[1] European Commission, Climate Change (Eurobarometer Survey, June 2025)

[2] Climate Action Plan 2025, page 24.

[3] Climate Act, s 6A(10)(a).

[4] Climate Act, s 6A(11)(a).

[5] National Oil Reserves Agency Act 2007, s 37B(9).

[6] Climate Action Plan 2019, page 10.

[7] Climate Action Plan 2024, pages 70-71.

[8] Ireland’s Long-term Strategy on Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction 2024, page 34.