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ONE Annual Lecture: Carbon dioxide removal: Are science and policy keeping up with the market?
Even with stringent and rapid reductions in emission of greenhouse gases it is clear, and has been since the Paris agreement in 2015, that we will need to remove hundreds of billions of tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere to keep warming below 2oC. More than 200 companies are now pursuing this CO2 removal (CDR -Carbon Dioxide Removal), using a wide range of approaches. More than $10bn has been invested in a voluntary CDR market which, by some projections, will grow to $100bn per year. Most approaches to CDR are novel, untested, and still at small scale. Whether they actually deliver the quantity of CDR claimed, and whether that removal is permanent and in addition to natural carbon uptake remain open questions. Accurate and robust measurement and verification of CDR also remains a significant challenge. And the consequences of CDR approaches to the wider environment are under-investigated.
CDR presents both a challenge and a dilemma to environmental scientists and regulators. We urgently need to develop approaches to CDR at large scale if we want to prevent dangerous climate change, but the precautionary principle guides us to pursue such major interventions with care. This challenge becomes more acute as countries build CDR into their future emission commitments and as compliance markets develop, requiring regulation that both promotes CDR innovation and protects the environment. This lecture will ask: what do we need to do, as the demand for CDR credits grows, to ensure that credits have real climate value and are not causing unintended environmental harm?
The lecture will be followed by a panel discussion with Dr Steve Smith and Dr Jessica Omukuti, chaired by Professor Rosalind Rickaby, and will conclude with a drinks reception.
Date:
3 February 2026, 16:30
Venue:
Theatres 1 & 2, Life and Mind Building
Speaker:
Prof. Gideon Henderson (Professor of Earth Sciences)
Organiser:
Prof Jim Hall (University of Oxford)
Host:
Prof Jim Hall (University of Oxford)
Booking required?:
Required
Booking url:
https://bookwhen.com/onenetwork#focus=ev-sbroi-20260203163000
Cost:
0
Audience:
Public
Editor:
Karen Parry
