COP31 Talks Put Carbon Removal Into Cover Decision Drafting

Carbon dioxide removal and carbon capture have entered the preliminary drafting fight over the COP31 cover decision, according to an informal consultation summary the Türkiye Presidency released on November 13, 2026.

The document synthesizes Party interventions from informal Presidency consultations held on November 10 and 11 in Antalya. It records explicit proposals to include Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) and Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) in the summit's cover decision — the first time these technologies have surfaced so directly at this stage of the COP31 cycle.

What does the summary actually say?

Under the thematic pillar of accelerating implementation through concrete solutions, the note registers Party views calling for accelerated research, development and deployment of CCUS and CDR, subject to environmental and social safeguards. The stated purpose is specific: these technologies are framed as necessary mechanisms to return global temperatures from a 1.5°C overshoot.

That framing matters. Removal is not presented as a substitute for mitigation but as a corrective instrument once the 1.5°C threshold has been breached. The summary pairs this with calls to limit both the magnitude and the duration of any overshoot.

Where does removal sit in the wider package?

The Presidency note places technological carbon removals alongside a broader set of mitigation and adaptation priorities recorded from Party interventions:

• Limiting the magnitude and duration of a 1.5°C temperature overshoot
• Global electrification targets of 35% by 2035
• Action on short-lived climate pollutants, including methane
• Continued transition away from fossil fuels as outlined in the Global Stocktake (GST)
• Developed nations reaching net-zero ahead of developing economies and moving onto net-negative emissions trajectories

The net-negative language is the most demanding element on the list. It would commit industrialized economies not merely to zero out emissions but to withdraw more carbon than they release. Removal capacity, in that construction, becomes structural rather than optional.

How firm is any of this?

Not very, by design. The COP31 Presidency cautioned that the informal summary serves strictly as a reflection of diverse views expressed by Parties rather than an agreed consensus text. Individual interventions carry no negotiating weight until they survive drafting rounds and bloc-level bargaining.

Industry read the signal anyway. The Negative Emissions Platform, host of the Think Negative Pavilion at COP31, welcomed the explicit recognition of removals as an indispensable component of overshoot management. The group simultaneously emphasized the necessity of strict integrity safeguards — an acknowledgement that CDR's credibility in a cover decision depends on the measurement and accounting rules attached to it.

What happens next?

Whether CCUS and CDR language survives into the final negotiated outcome now depends on the drafting rounds and consensus-building among negotiating blocs in Antalya. The informal summary marks the opening position, not the landing zone.

For the removal industry, the milestone to track is procedural: the first negotiated draft of the cover decision, where Party proposals either acquire bracketed text or disappear without a trace.