4 June 2026, Brussels

Negative Emissions Summit 2026

Carbon removals: Europe’s new economic superpower

Demand generation for permanent carbon removals

Europe is entering the decade where durable, high-integrity carbon removals move from “promising” to “system-critical”. The Negative Emissions Summit 2026 convenes policymakers, industry leaders, investors, and CDR providers to focus on one central question:

How do we create credible, scalable demand for permanent carbon removals—fast enough to strengthen EU competitiveness, enable investment, and deliver climate outcomes?

This year’s Summit is built around the mechanisms that can unlock durable demand at scale—especially compliance-driven routes (including the EU ETS) and near-term public purchasing and support schemes that help Europe ramp up capacity before full compliance integration.

“Permanent carbon removals will soon be in EU climate law. Europe’s next step is to make demand real. With clear rules, clear timelines, and integrity at the core, we can build the market certainty needed to scale durable removals.”

Chriis Sherwood, Secretary-General, Negative Emissions Platform

Session Themes

Short-term national and EU demand creation: governments as market-makers

If Europe waits for full compliance integration to scale, it risks a slow ramp and a capacity gap. This session focuses on what governments can do now to build the market, accelerate learning, and crowd in private capital.

Topics include:

Public purchasing programmes that create early offtake and learning-by-doing.
How an EU-level Buyers’ Club and coordinated demand aggregation can reduce transaction friction and signal credibility.
How to ensure early public support prioritises permanence, quality, and verifiable storage, while helping multiple permanent pathways scale.

Compliance markets: ETS and sectoral obligations

This session gets specific about how compliance demand could work and what must be true for it to deliver real scale for permanent removals while keeping climate integrity strong.

We’ll cover:

What “good” looks like for ETS-linked demand: clear volumes, clear timelines, and clarity on how the cost gap is bridged between carbon prices and removal costs.
How compliance design can preserve the ETS as a decarbonisation tool while still enabling procurement of high-quality permanent removals for residual emissions.
The enabling layer: certification readiness and market rules that keep quality high and reduce uncertainty for buyers and investors (including issues like co-claiming and interaction with voluntary markets).
How sectoral obligations and adjacent files can create complementary demand signals.

Demand meets industry: permanent CDR as a mainstream economic activity

Permanent removals will scale faster when they are embedded into existing industrial systems where infrastructure, engineering capability, permitting experience, and supply chains already exist.

This session examines:

How heavy industry and other sectors can become producers of permanent removals (not just buyers), including integration opportunities across multiple pathways.
What investable industrial CDR looks like: revenue stacking, contractual structures, and how policy can reduce risk for first movers.
Where durable removals fit alongside voluntary demand—without undermining quality, credibility, or decarbonisation incentives.

Fireside chat: Europe in a changing international carbon landscape

Global climate politics and carbon markets are shifting. This closing conversation explores Europe’s options and risks: international crediting discussions, Article 6 dynamics, trade-related pressures, and what a more competitive geopolitical context means for carbon removal strategy.

A man with glasses and a white dress shirt speaking at a podium with a microphone in front of a digital screen that displays text about negative emissions.

Pitching showcase: 4-minute “espresso shots”

Fast, focused pitches highlighting permanent CDR projects and pathways.

Expect:

Short pitches designed for rapid understanding (the problem, the solution, permanence/MRV approach, and what’s needed to move).
Thematic clustering (e.g., industrial integration, infrastructure-enabled scale, country-specific opportunity).