I am very pleased to be presenting at the 4th International Conference on Carbon Dioxide Removal in Milan.
The paper I will present was co-authored with Sebastian Manhart and produced with the TIDE Centre, University of Oxford. It explores how durable carbon dioxide removal could support industrialisation and economic transformation in the Global South.
The key idea is that CDR should not only be understood as a climate service supplied to buyers in advanced economies. If designed well, it can also become a basis for domestic value creation in supplier countries, supporting employment, infrastructure, technology development, and industrial capability.
Our analysis focuses on countries with strong structural advantages, including biomass residues, renewable energy resources, geological storage potential, and growing workforces. We estimate that durable CDR could create 3 to 9.5 million jobs and generate $180 to 600 billion in annual economic value across the Global South by 2050.
The paper is grounded in case studies on Exomad Green in Bolivia, NetZero in Brazil, and Octavia Carbon in Kenya.
For those interested, I will be giving the second talk in the Justice, ethics, and social perceptions of CDR session on 10 June, from 11:30 to 12:30, in Room C.
During the conference, I would be very interested in discussing how CDR demand, finance, certification, and policy design can help scale high-integrity removals while ensuring that supplier countries capture a fair share of the long-term industrial and economic benefits.