The CDR R&D Act of 2023 will funnel $12 billion towards RD&D for carbon removal
“Federal investment in research, development and demonstration of emerging technologies is essential to support innovation and ultimately deliver a full portfolio of high-quality carbon removal solutions that can scale. This bill is a foundational building block within the package of policies that is needed to responsibly scale this new climate solutions sector.”
— Sasha Stashwick, director of policy
Introduced by Rep. Tonko and Sen. Schatz, the Carbon Dioxide Removal Research and Development Act of 2023 could provide a huge boost for the research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) of emerging carbon removal technologies. Complementary to other federal efforts to support innovation in this emerging sector, such as the Carbon Negative Shot, and in line with recommendations from the the 2018 National Academies report, this bill would be the largest federal investment in RD&D for the carbon removal sector to date. If passed, the legislation would authorize $12 billion and drive interagency coordination and research program direction.
The bill would offer federal cost sharing for pilot and demonstration projects, an essential way the federal government can support nascent carbon removal technologies on their path to commercial readiness.
The bill also supports a number of cross-cutting issues that we think are vital. For example, it focuses on improving domestic manufacturing of materials and components critical to the deployment of key carbon removal technologies, such as direct air capture (DAC), as well as carbon mineralization in widely-used industrial building materials, such as concrete. Finally, we are pleased to see that both project level monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) and system level carbon monitoring appears throughout the bill text; this is critically important to identify and build appropriate monitoring systems across the federal government that, taken together, can prove that carbon removal is a real climate solution.
Overall, we’re thrilled to see this ambitious bill be introduced and support a suite of emerging carbon removal technologies from lab to demonstration.
We’ll keep covering the bill’s progress. Subscribe to our newsletters to stay in the loop.
