Policy paper

Independent review on greenhouse gas removals: government response

Published 17 July 2026

This was published under the 2024 to 2026 Starmer Labour government

Introduction

In February 2025, the Secretary of State for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) commissioned an independent review of Greenhouse Gas Removals (GGRs). The Review considered how options for engineered and nature-based GGRs can assist the UK in meeting its net zero targets. The Review team engaged extensively with a range of stakeholders and presented 30 wide-ranging recommendations in its final report^{[footnote 1]}. The government reiterates its thanks to Lord Whitehead, who chaired the Review, and everyone who contributed to this work.

This policy statement provides an update on the work we are taking forward to respond to the GGR Review and reflects on the progress the UK has made to date on GGRs. Our strategy for a functioning GGR market is to kickstart UK supply with revenue certainty via the GGR Business Model and alongside investment in carbon capture and storage networks, while building durable demand through robust market frameworks and continually driving high‑integrity standards for removals.

Given the comprehensive nature of the Review, we are prioritising taking forward the recommendations which support the government’s Growth and Clean Energy missions. There are however several recommendations on which government requires further analysis to underpin decision making. We will set out the specific role of GGRs in delivering Carbon Budget 7 (CB7) and net zero through the publication of a delivery plan for carbon budgets out to 2042 in due course.

GGRs will be important for reaching net zero – balancing residual emissions from hard-to-decarbonise sectors.  This is recognised by both the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the UK’s Climate Change Committee. Government has always been clear that high-integrity removals are not a substitute for decisive action across the economy to reduce emissions, agreeing with the Review’s recommendation to continue to aim to achieve net zero as far as possible through emissions mitigations (Recommendation 1a). The Review also recommended government request advice from the Climate Change Committee on post 2050 net-negative emissions (Recommendation 1b). We are currently focussed on the important work to ensure ongoing delivery of existing targets and will consider this recommendation in due course.

Maximising growth

The Review outlined the growth opportunities of GGRs (Recommendations 4a, 4b, 4c), and the government agrees with the recommendations spotlighting the economic opportunities of the GGR sector. This government is already delivering on its commitments to support jobs, clean power, and accelerate towards net zero. In October 2024, we made a significant funding commitment of up to £21.7 billion, over 25 years, to kickstart the Carbon Capture Usage and Storage (CCUS) industry. As per the UK’s 2025 Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan, by 2035, there is the potential for engineered removal technologies to support up to 5,000 jobs directly and across the supply chain^{[footnote 2]}. We will continue to boost the supply chain opportunities presented by the GGR and CCUS sectors.

We are already acting on one of the key recommendations from the Review in relation to Non-Pipeline Transport (NPT) through the East Coast Cluster (ECC) NPT Pathfinder selection process^{[footnote 3]} (Recommendation 7b). This is a pivotal moment as it is the first time the CCUS cluster sequencing process has opened to applications seeking access to geological storage via NPT (i.e. truck, rail, ship), maximising growth opportunities across the UK. The Pathfinder follows both the Review and findings from recent market engagement and is the first step in unlocking growth and decarbonisation anywhere in the UK, including sites far from the existing CCUS clusters, with possible support through the GGR Business Model, or for other sectors under the Transition Access Agreement. The Pathfinder competition introduces new eligibility provisions, to promote shorter or more sustainable supply chains in support of the Growth Mission.  Furthermore, for the development of enduring NPT policy, we published the NPT consultation on 5 February 2026^{[footnote 4]}. The enduring NPT policy proposed in the NPT consultation will seek to further enable deployment of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) from a range of sectors (e.g. CCS-enabled Energy from Waste plants) from across the country and delivering contributions to growth and meeting our decarbonisation commitments and Clean Power Mission.

Furthermore, the Review recommended that we lead internationally on GGRs and convene a coalition of countries committed to achieving net zero by 2050 (Recommendation 6e). We are already acting on this – for example, in February 2026, the UK signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the State of California^{[footnote 5]}, aiming to strengthen cooperation on climate matters, including on Greenhouse Gas Removals. We recognise that international collaboration is extremely valuable, particularly in these emerging sectors, and we look forward to continuing to work with our global partners, including through existing international multilateral forums such as Mission Innovation Carbon Dioxide Removal (MI-CDR).

We note the Review’s recommendation also to consider overseas Direct Air Carbon Capture and Storage (DACCS) deployment with a view to buying credits from overseas projects that could offer cost advantages (Recommendation 6e). The Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan set out a cross-government package of proposals and policies for the UK to enable carbon budgets 4, 5 and 6 to be met up to 2037. This package is necessarily a snapshot of our plan to meet carbon budgets and will be reviewed and adapted as future circumstances change. As set out in the Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan, the current pathway for the UK to meet its carbon budgets and 2030 and 2035 Nationally Determined Contributions is through domestic emissions reductions and removals alone, with a limited exception around Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) for Carbon Budget 6. The government reserves the right to use voluntary cooperation through carbon markets established under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, and we will be considering the independent GGR Review and Climate Change Committee’s CB7 advice around the case to examine whether high-integrity overseas DACCS should complement domestic deployment.

Driving supply-side delivery

Government remains committed to the deployment of GGR technologies in the UK. The UK is well-positioned to be a global leader in GGR technologies with our world-class research institutions, engineering expertise and access to geological storage. We are progressing a world-leading, holistic GGR policy framework to enable UK deployment at scale. 

We are supporting the supply-side by deploying our GGR Business Model, a central pillar of our strategy to kickstart the industry, where the government will provide engineered GGR developers with a top-up payment to an agreed price for credits sold^{[footnote 6]}. The Business Model will also cover the costs of using the CCUS transport and storage network, and protects projects from cross-chain risks, for example if the CCUS transport and storage network is not ready or temporarily unavailable. This revenue certainty mechanism aims to maximise market demand for high-integrity removals credits and provides important risk protection for GGR developers. This GGR Business Model sits alongside the Waste Industrial Carbon Capture Business Model^{[footnote 7]}, which has potential to support removals from the waste sector through CCS deployment. We are also developing a business model for large-scale Power BECCS^{[footnote 8]}, recognising the dual role this technology can play in delivering both negative emissions and low carbon power.

The Review made several recommendations that could enhance our supply-side policies. Whilst government agrees with the sentiment behind the Review’s recommendation to establish an Office for GGRs (Recommendation 7k), as collaboration across all actors in the GGR space (both in the public and private sector) is crucial to enable the successful delivery of GGRs, we believe we have the appropriate arrangements in place to deliver, but will keep this under review. Following the Review we have continued to strengthen our tools and processes to support policy development and delivery, and we will continue to build capacity and capability across government and its regulators to ensure that policy and regulatory frameworks enable innovation and the growth of the GGR industry.

The Review made a recommendation to assess the feasibility and opportunities of co-locating DACCS plants with waste heat sources such as nuclear, data centres and other sources (Recommendation 3e). Initial analysis from the Energy Systems Catapult suggests waste-heat DACCS is the preferred most cost-effective DACCS deployment option^{[footnote 9]}, but we note there is further research to be done to assess the opportunity for co-location of these technologies with small-modular reactors and data centres. DESNZ is exploring research to provide new evidence for policy making in these areas, as well as collaborating with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)’s research councils to increase impactful research across a portfolio of GGRs.

One of the Review’s headline recommendations was for government to adopt a strategic aim to minimise the use of imported biomass feedstocks (Recommendation 3b). It also recommended that government should set out its view on priority uses for biomass (Recommendation 3c). Government will continue to assess the role of biomass and imports required to meet carbon budgets and net zero. We have published the Land Use Framework^{[footnote 10]} (Recommendation 3a) which provides principles and evidence to guide decisions relating to, or having an impact on, land use. It supports informed choices across food, nature, infrastructure and climate priorities.  Now the level for CB7 has been set and we move towards setting out our delivery plans, we will consider the role and land use requirements of biomass in our climate mitigation pathways, continuing to refine analysis to better understand the land use implications of biomass in line with government’s objectives.  

The Review made recommendations on biomethane from Anaerobic Digestion (AD) (Recommendations 5a and 7d) and identified ‘low regret’ deployment options for removals from the anaerobic digestion of sustainable biomass feedstocks to produce biomethane and biogenic CO₂ for GGRs. Government recognises the role that AD for biomethane and GGRs can play in our energy system. We also recognise AD presents opportunities for improved nutrient management and circular economy benefits, where digestate is properly managed, stored and spread within crop and soil need. The department is looking at support for the biomethane sector after 2028 and how to address a range of investment barriers, including considering the opportunity of removals from biomethane plants. We will provide further details on this in due course. As many biomethane plants are dispersed across the UK, the NPT Pathfinder competition could provide the opportunity to unlock removals from the AD sector, subject to successful applications, as well as unlocking barriers for other sectors via the Transition Access Agreement.

The Review also made several recommendations related to the treatment of waste as a feedstock, in particular posing amendments to the waste hierarchy to enable further removal potential via incorporation of CCUS technology (Recommendation 7f). Policy arrangements are in place to incentivise the retrofitting of carbon capture equipment and we do not assess further requirements to be necessary at this stage. Under revised Decarbonisation Readiness Requirements, any environmental permit application submitted for an Energy from Waste (EfW) facility after 28 February 2026 now requires that the plant is built net zero ready, meaning the plant operator must have a credible pathway to decarbonise. New build EfW will be required to be either fitted with CCS or designed to be compatible with CCS, to ultimately connect to a CCS network. On wider waste policy, this government is committed to transitioning towards a circular economy where resources are kept in use for longer and waste is designed out - this systemic change builds a path to economic growth and supports progress towards net zero. We plan to publish a Circular Economy Growth Plan which sets out how government will deliver this transition, identifying the biggest opportunities in sectors right across the economy.

Similarly, the Review made a recommendation to require the installation of carbon capture equipment on Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) plants based on biomass feedstocks (Recommendation 3d). While we understand the intent, a mandatory approach would risk the ability of several SAF plants to start production as CCUS is not well suited to all SAF technologies. For projects that are well suited, the SAF mandate^{[footnote 11]} already incentivises plants to install CCUS, as certificates are rewarded in proportion to greenhouse gas savings and the CCUS Business Models provide the opportunity for UK SAF plants to apply for financial support. Government considers that this existing policy framework currently provides sufficient incentivisation for CCUS to be installed as part of SAF where it is technically possible to do so.

Finally, the Review recommended Defra should urgently review the waste management options and the case for extended support via energy generation with longer term capacity to deliver GGRs for when the Renewable Obligation (RO) support expires (Recommendation 7c). RO based energy generation using UK wastes and residues (e.g. waste wood, sawmill residues or poultry litter) is due to start expiring from 2027.  The Renewables Obligation scheme has always been time-limited, and industry has known since 2009 that support for generators operating before June 2008 would end in 2027. We are aware there could be commercial implications for some biomass technologies when the RO expires. Lowering consumer bills is a priority and the bar for publicly funded support for generators is high. No decisions have been made, and we will provide a further update in due course.

Building demand-side momentum

Our vision is for a competitive negative emissions market, underpinned by demand in both the Voluntary Carbon Market and the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (UK ETS). We are aiming to integrate GGRs into the UK ETS as soon as practicable, to provide a long-term demand signal for removals. Stimulating private sector demand for high-integrity removals credits underpinned by high-integrity standards provides the foundation to scale up the engineered removal industry. We recognise this is a key challenge for many actors and government is progressing a series of initiatives to stimulate corporate demand. This is why the UK, alongside the governments of Singapore and Kenya, established the Coalition to Grow Carbon Markets^{[footnote 12]}. This is a government-led initiative to strengthen high-integrity corporate demand for carbon credits through more supportive policy and incentives. We have also consulted on our six principles for high-integrity Voluntary Carbon and Nature Markets^{[footnote 13]}. The government published a summary of responses to the consultation^{[footnote 14]} and will publish a response shortly.

Government encourages more companies to engage with the purchasing of high-quality removal credits through the Voluntary Carbon Market, ramping up the proportion of high-integrity durable removals as part of portfolios over time. The government has also consulted on how to take forward the manifesto commitment to mandate UK-regulated financial institutions and large companies to develop and implement credible transition plans^{[footnote 15]} and will publish a response to the consultation shortly. In February 2026, the government published the final UK Sustainability Reporting Standards (UK SRS) for voluntary use^{[footnote 16]}, alongside its consultation response^{[footnote 17]}. The response sets out government plans to consult shortly on a programme of work to modernise the UK’s corporate reporting requirements. Finally, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has allocated a budget of £2.5 million to procure carbon removal credits to offset embodied carbon of the newly constructed European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts headquarters^{[footnote 18]}. DSIT set out a preference to source high-integrity carbon credits from UK-based projects which meet permanence thresholds for carbon removal projects.

The GGR Review outlined a headline recommendation to amend the existing SAF Mandate so it could drive procurement of both SAF and permanent GGRs, creating a regulated source of demand for removals (Recommendation 6d). Government recognises the critical role of both SAF and GGRs in decarbonising aviation and is committed to establishing the most effective policy environment to scale up both technologies. The SAF Mandate remains the UK’s primary lever for reducing aviation fuel emissions and for providing industry with the long-term certainty needed to invest. Meeting our decarbonisation targets will require a clear and appropriately designed demand signal for GGRs. Further work is therefore needed to explore options for driving demand for GGRs, including a fuller review of this proposal. The government remains committed to supporting the production, development and use of SAF in the UK. Any future GGR policy would need to complement existing policies, including the SAF Mandate, recognising the importance of maintaining investor confidence and avoiding unintended impacts on deployment and investment. We will set out further detail on our approach in 2027.

The Review also recommended that a mechanism is put in place to fund woodland creation, from revenue from emitters under the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), and ideally this should not involve direct inclusion of woodland in the UK ETS (Recommendation 6c). Nature-based solutions such as woodland creation are critical to meeting our net zero target, storing carbon in natural environment sinks and providing materials to help the construction industry meet net zero ambitions. Woodland creation is supported by a range of existing government measures. The UK ETS Authority has not yet made a decision on whether high-quality UK woodland removals should be included in the UK ETS.

Finally, the Review recommended that the principle of ‘geological net zero’ should be embraced (Recommendation 1c). As set out in the Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan, we expect that a wide technology mix, including nature-based solutions, will be needed to balance residual emissions from hard-to-abate sectors. Government is committed to high quality removals and to ensuring that GGRs provide measurable and verifiable removals of CO₂ from the atmosphere. We remain committed to delivering our carbon budgets and net zero, recognising the need for a range of technologies to balance residual emissions. Therefore, we do not plan to adopt the principle of geological net zero.

Underpinning system-wide policies and setting strategic priorities

In addition to our demand-side and supply-side policies, there are a range of cross-cutting frameworks that underpin the overall system and are vital to successful delivery of GGR technologies. The Review made recommendations regarding these enabling policies and made some wider strategic recommendations for government to consider.

A key enabling policy the government is progressing is the development of the UK’s GGR Standard. The UK GGR Standard will be crucial to preserve the integrity of any market for negative emissions and instil public and investor confidence that removals are genuine and verifiable. Government is committed to continually strengthening GGR standards so that markets for negative emissions are underpinned by high-integrity, transparency and confidence. We are developing the GGR Standard and are aligning with the EU Carbon Removal Certification Framework (CRCF) and recognised high-integrity benchmarks such as the Integrity Council of Voluntary Carbon Markets (ICVCM) and Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism (PACM) wherever possible in the UK context as we recognise the importance of international homogenisation. The Review made two recommendations relating to the GGR Standard – 1) that there should be regulated Monitoring Reporting and Verification (MRV) for all GGR technologies to govern their output (Recommendation 7g), which the government agrees with, and 2) that government should look to endorse an interim biochar standard (and enhanced rock weathering when developed) while a government standard is developed (Recommendation 6b).

Based on the findings of the Review, the government has reflected on the role it should play in setting standards for biochar. Drawing on recent evidence, including analysis undertaken by the CO₂RE programme, we are confident that the EU CRCF provides a good foundation for a UK biochar methodology in the UK context^{[footnote 19]}. This is why we have decided to work with the British Standards Institution (BSI) to develop a UK GGR biochar methodology which builds on the EU CRCF, whilst implementing targeted improvements that drive alignment with the ICVCM Core Carbon Principles and Article 6.4.  This approach will maximise alignment with the EU’s approach and ensure the UK has a robust and credible methodology, maintaining a high bar for integrity as the market evolves.

The Review also made recommendations on research and innovation (Recommendations 7h and 7i). We agree with the Review’s conclusions that accelerating the development, demonstration and deployment of critical low carbon technologies is important to increase the certainty of meeting carbon budgets, reduce energy system costs of the net zero transition and position the UK to lead in clean energy industries. We invested over £80 million in GGR research and innovation to demonstrate a range of GGR approaches through the Direct Air Capture and Greenhouse Gas Removal Innovation Programme and the UKRI-funded Greenhouse Gas Removal Demonstrator (GGR-D) Programme and its coordinating CO₂RE Hub^{[footnote 20]}. We continue to review the ongoing evidence and research needs to effectively and responsibly scale these diverse approaches and evaluate the most appropriate support mechanisms as we continue with our intention to support a portfolio of GGRs. Final reports from the Direct Air Capture and Greenhouse Gas Removal Innovation Programme are being published (Recommendation 7i)^{[footnote 21]}.

As set out in the Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan, our UK Cleantech Innovation Challenges programme is establishing ambitious, measurable and timebound innovation goals, targeting mission-critical areas of innovation^{[footnote 22]}. These Challenges will mobilise public and private sector investment in innovation and focus policy efforts on creating market pull for new technologies. This month, the programme launched the UK Carbon Management Innovation Challenge, focused on technologies that can remove and sequester carbon at a competitive cost and are widely deployable in point-source carbon capture, direct air capture and other engineered GGRs^{[footnote 23]}. It will draw on a range of policies to ensure they support the development and adoption of innovative technologies and build relationships with a pipeline of UK innovators whose technologies will contribute to achieving the Challenge goals. Government is also exploring the case for intervention in financing for GGR technologies not reliant on CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure (e.g. biochar, enhanced rock weathering, CO₂ mineralisation in building materials, etc).

In relation to these recommendations on research and innovation, the Review recommended the government explore the possibility of creating a GGR Catapult (Recommendation 7j). The Energy Systems Catapult was set up in 2015 by Innovate UK (the UK’s national innovation agency) to accelerate net zero energy innovation and has already conducted research and development on GGRs. We currently assess this Catapult to be best placed to continue taking forward further research as required.

The Review also proposed government undertake an audit of regulatory barriers to GGR deployment and include a plan to address them (Recommendation 7a). We note the findings from the CO₂RE demonstrator programme on the application limits for biochar and crushed basalt^{[footnote 24]}. This suggests the current biochar application limit set by the Environment Agency for arable land could be safely increased to 10 tonnes/ha/year with no evidence of heavy metals accumulation in soils. CO₂RE also suggest crushed basalt can be applied at a rate of 40/tonnes/ha/year with no heavy metals accumulation in soils. Defra has undertaken a consultation and call for evidence to inform how we modernise fertilisers legislation and will work with stakeholders to develop the rules and standards that will enable the placing on the market of safe and efficacious fertiliser products^{[footnote 25]}.

Finally, the Review recommends that government monitors public acceptance of GGRs and should prioritise focussing on developing a social licence to enable trust in these solutions (Recommendation 1d). We will continue to work with industry and regulators such as the Environment Agency and Health and Safety Executive to ensure that GGR deployments are safe and to the highest environmental standards. Public perceptions was a research theme under the CO₂RE Greenhouse Gas Removals hub, investigating public values and interests around GGRs^{[footnote 26]}. Our Energising Britain plan^{[footnote 27]} sets out how we will work with businesses and communities to ensure everyone can benefit from our Clean Energy Superpower Mission, including through climate and nature policies that are responsive to people’s needs and views. Our approach is guided by five principles for public engagement, which we have co-designed with experts – Communicate, Listen, Enable, Grow, Collaborate. On GGRs specifically, we already monitor public knowledge towards GGRs annually as part of the public attitudes tracker^{[footnote 28]}. In the 2025 survey results, 63% of participants said they were aware of GGRs, with 12% advising they knew a lot or a fair amount.  We plan to add more questions when awareness increases, and it is proportionate to do so.

Conclusion

In conclusion, government remains committed to supporting the responsible, high-integrity growth of the UK’s GGR sector. Delivering high-integrity GGRs at scale will require a coordinated effort across government, bringing together first-of-a-kind business models and market frameworks, CO₂ transport and storage delivery, regulation and standards, and continued research, development and demonstration. It will also involve government working in partnership with industry, investors, regulators and carbon credit offtake buyers to build confidence and unlock investment. We also look forward to continuing to collaborate with our international partners.

We recognise the significant challenges that remain, including the high costs of early projects, the need for reliable CO₂ storage and transport infrastructure, and the importance of maturing markets for durable removals; and we are already translating the Review’s evidence into action. We will continue to consider this important evidence base, along with further emerging evidence, for years to come.

We will drive the initial phase of UK GGR delivery for technologies that rely on geological storage (such as BECCS and DACCS) through decisions taken in the CCUS Cluster selection process. These technologies will contribute to the scale of removals required to meet our carbon budgets, alongside the deployment of those which do not rely on geological storage. As of 30 June 2026, we have set the level of Carbon Budget 7. We then look forward to publishing, in due course, a delivery plan for carbon budgets out to 2042, setting out the role of GGRs in meeting our carbon budgets and delivering net zero, and our policies and proposals to support them.

We are grateful for the Independent Review’s significant contribution and the extensive engagement behind it and look forward to continuing to work closely with stakeholders to build a resilient, investable UK GGR sector.

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