从空中清除碳technological meansis an基本工具to help keep temperature risebelow 1.5 degrees C（2.7度F）。从长远来看，为技术CDR创建强大而长期的市场可以刺激创新和加速部署，同时扩大商业上可行的行业。利用联邦政府的购买力来创建市场可以直接从大气中删除数百万吨二氧化碳，并以创造良好工作并确定优先级的方式直接和监控增长equity and verifiable removal outcomes.

TheFederal Carbon Dioxide Removal Leadership Act— introduced by代表Paul Tonko（NY-20）and Representative Scott Peters (CA-52) in theHouseand Senator Chris Coons (DE) and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (RI) in the参议院- 将：

  • Direct the Department of Energy (DOE) to use technology-based approaches to annually remove an increasing amount of carbon dioxide, culminating in removal of 10 million net metric tons of carbon dioxide on a lifecycle basis starting in fiscal year 2035.
  • Support a diverse portfolio of viable CDR projects — including a special carve-out for small-scale projects.
  • Prioritize projects that deliver economic opportunity to areas likely to be impacted by the transition away from fossil fuels; emphasize public engagement and community benefits; and quantify and mitigate any environmental justice impacts.
  • 指示DOE确保将监视，报告和验证碳去除的最佳实践应用于任何资金的项目。

Why This Legislation Is Important

Alongside immediate and significant emission reductions, enacting policies that will increase global technological CDR capacity is critical to meet the scale of CDR needed to stay below 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) of global warming. That means that to avoid the worst impacts of climate change around the world — from increasingly deadly extreme weather events to dramatic sea level rise — we need to rapidly grow the technological carbon removal sector. But technological CDR is a new industry based on the market value of removing carbon from the air, which is artificially low today without a carbon price accounting for the costs of climate change. It can be expensive, and it needs reliable customers that want to pay for its climate services so it can expand and reduce costs.

Direct air capture plant in green field with sunny sky
Carbon removal technologies such as direct air capture are designed specifically to clean excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Federal contracts can help grow these innovative industries. Photo byClimeworks

The federal government has the capacity to be a transformational customer for technological CDR. Long-term, dependable federal purchasing of technological CDR, as proposed in the Federal Carbon Dioxide Removal Leadership Act, would serve as a significant and reliable source of demand for this new market, accelerating CDR deployment in the U.S. The federal government also has the responsibility to lead the way in this emerging industry, given the disproportionate level of emissions the U.S. is historically responsible for.

Further, the government can and should require contractors to responsibly use those federal dollars to deliver demonstrable results across a range of national priorities outside of climate, such as equitable economic development, and high-road labor practices. Federal CDR procurement should pair with policies that ensure its long-term efficacy, manage and mitigate any negative impacts and maximize the benefits of resulting economic opportunity for underserved and over-polluted communities, and communities negatively impacted by the clean energy transition. Requirements and prioritization aroundequity, environmental integrity and responsible growth，就像《联邦二氧化碳去除领导法》中的那些人一样，也是确保CDR贡献公平净零过渡的工具，并且可以帮助为整个行业的运营设定先例。