Negative emissions technologies (NETs) offer significant, yet uncertain, opportunities. 

The controversial technologies are seen by some as integral in the effort to limit global warming to 1.5°C. But can they work, and how?

Our project, NET-RAPIDO, explored the opportunities, challenges and risks of NETs for climate action. Breaking new ground, the project addressed the question of financial viability, determining the policy and finance needs of pilot programmes with practical approaches to foster investment.

Understanding the current tensions surrounding NETs, our project took a balanced approach to assessing and producing much needed governance recommendations by including key stakeholders throughout. 

We assessed if the technology is ready to be implemented and develop governance pathways. Ensuring these pathways uphold all aspects of sustainable development goals is crucial. 

The research was grounded by real-world examples and dialogue, with continuous stakeholder and public engagement with researchers, NGO’s, policy makers and industry. This creative learning process helped identify the crucial areas of concern as well as the real-world implications of large-scale NETs deployment, and maximised the research to policy impact of the projects research and outputs.

The project aimed to create a clear understanding of opportunities, challenges and risks of negative emission reduction efforts based on an informed analysis and proper discussion amongst relevant stakeholders. More specifically the project aimed to:

• Assess major prospective negative emission technologies (NETs) through a multi-disciplinary approach. This includes economics, engineering and political science with regards to their technical maturity, GHG reduction costs and potential barriers for implementation.
• Define a potential governance framework needed  in order to manage and mobilise the deployment of NETs, ensuring environmental integrity and avoiding any negative side effects. 
• Evaluate how to engage and stimulate action for NETs from the private sector both on the international and national level. 
• Create a common language and increase key stakeholders’ understanding of the implications of large-scale deployment of NETs. This will  facilitate mutual learning processes on the impact on energy systems and other dimensions of sustainable development.

The project was led by a consortium of Märladalen University, Sweden (Sweden, project lead), Perspectives Climate Research (Germany) and Climate Strategies. The project is funded by the Swedish Energy Agency.