Review of Economics and Policies of Carbon Dioxide Removal

Despite the increasing political attention and support, the high costs of many carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies remain a barrier to their large-scale deployment. We provide an overview of the economics for two key CDR options - BECCS and DACCS - and review proposed and existing CDR policies to address the "CDR gap" in achieving the long-term temperature goals of the Paris Agreement.

Although we lack detailed cost breakdowns of actual projects, our review suggests that the cost range for BECCS is generally lower than that for DACCS. The key cost parameter for BECCS is the sustainability of biomass feedstock, and for DACCS the energy intensity.

Cost estimates for DACCS have increased due to experiences from commercial operation, for BECCS they are increasingly differentiated according to the sustainability of feedstock.