Governing the Responsible Scaling of Durable Carbon Dioxide Removal

Durable carbon dioxide removal (CDR) has emerged as a critical component of global strategies to achieve net-zero and net-negative greenhouse gas emissions. Over the past decade, research on durable CDR technologies including, but not limited to, mineralization, biochar, DACCS, and enhanced weathering has evolved rapidly, demonstrating their technical potential and growing integration into climate policy discourse. However, the field now faces pressing challenges as these technologies move toward early largely state-supported deployment. Key questions center on financing mechanisms, governance frameworks, and the societal and environmental trade-offs associated with large-scale implementation. Recent studies highlight the increasing involvement of governments, private investors, and carbon markets in supporting CDR, yet underline the need for coordinated institutional arrangements and transparent accountability frameworks to ensure responsible scaling. Despite progress in policy development and early market mechanisms, research gaps remain in understanding how to balance climate ambition, economic viability, environmental integrity, and social legitimacy. Addressing these gaps demands an integrated, interdisciplinary approach that combines technical, governance, economic, and societal perspectives.This Research Topic aims to advance comprehensive and interdisciplinary understanding of how durable CDR can be responsibly enabled, governed, and sustained. It seeks to explore how institutional, financial, and policy instruments can create the conditions for scaling durable CDR while managing complex trade-offs across climate, economic, and social dimensions. The topic invites exploration of how emerging governance models, market structures, and stakeholder engagement processes can support the development of transparent, equitable, and effective mechanisms for deploying durable CDR technologies. Furthermore, it encourages the integration of theoretical, empirical, and modelling approaches to build frameworks for evaluating CDR governance arrangements and investment risk under conditions of uncertainty.This Research Topic focuses on studies that address governance, policy, finance, and societal aspects of durable CDR, rather than focusing solely on technology development or engineering performance. This Research Topic also welcomes integrated studies that examine how technical systems, infrastructure, and legal or economic conditions interact with governance and responsible scaling. To gather further insights into the enablers and boundaries of responsible CDR scaling, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:- Empirical studies of early deployment and comparative governance- Systems modelling and integrated assessments of scaling pathways- Governance and institutional arrangements for CDR scaling- Public policy and regulatory frameworks- Finance, investment, and innovative business models- Market design and evolution of carbon trading mechanisms- Infrastructure, value chains, and systems integration- Stakeholder engagement, legitimacy, and social accountability- Managing trade-offs between the integrity of climate goals, economic viability, and societal objectivesAccepted article types: empirical studies, conceptual analyses, policy perspectives, and modelling studies. Topic editors: Kenneth Karl Mikael Möllersten, Liv Anna Lundberg Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/83713/governing-the-responsible-scaling-of-durable-carbon-dioxide-removal