Building Canada’s carbon removal pipeline

What happened: Carbon Removal Canada launched a new market intelligence dashboard for Canada’s carbon removal industry. The Carbon Console maps carbon removal companies, technologies and projects across the country, bringing visibility and transparency.

The details: The Console highlights all the progress that’s already been made on carbon removal.

• 101,000 tonnes removed to date - equal to 30% of cars on the road today

• Another 11.9 megatonnes worth of projects in the pipeline

• 45 projects in almost every province across the country

• 78 companies working on biomass, carbon mineralization, ocean-based methods, bioenergy and more

The dashboard also connects the dots between projects and policy by highlighting which provinces have key supports in place. That includes the presence of carbon pricing systems, regulatory frameworks and geologic capacity for CO2 storage (Saskatchewan could store more than 150B tonnes!), and offset protocols.

Why it matters: Scaling up carbon removal is key part of our climate strategy, and delivers the “net” in net-zero by drawing down remaining and historic emissions.

It’s also an economic opportunity. Canada has the abundant renewable energy, geological storage, vast coastlines and natural resources to be a leader. Carbon Removal Canada estimates the sector could create 89,000 jobs and $140B in GDP.

By visualizing this data, the Console helps make carbon removal tangible - going from news releases to showing physical projects in action across the country.

Yes, but: Carbon removal still a long way to go to realizing its climate and economic benefits. The 11.9Mt in the pipeline is a fraction of the 35Mt needed for Canada to meet its climate goals.

A new Policy Primer from the Carbon Business Council argues that Canada needs to build out three key pillars to deliver the goods:

• Create reliable demand for removals through government procurement, regulatory requirements, and market mechanisms

• Deploy strategic capital - public, tax incentives, and catalytic funding - to drive down costs and help solutions move from lab to commercial-scale

• Create favourable market conditions, giving carbon removal the clarity it needs to accelerate from removal targets, high-integrity standards, and streamlined permitting.

The bottom line: Carbon removal in Canada is growing but still in the early stages. Clear policy signals, market shaping, and building the economic (as well as climate) case for carbon removal can turn plans into actual megatonnes.

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