Global warming is accelerating, and current emissions reduction efforts fall short of the temperature goals of the Paris Agreement. Negative emissions technologies (NETs) have therefore gained prominence as potential tools to reach net-zero goals. This book presents a doctrinal analysis of how international law, along with certain EU and German legal frameworks, addresses the deployment of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) and direct air carbon capture and storage (DACCS). The analysis reveals that the applicable rules do not uniformly promote or prohibit these technologies. Instead, they establish a normative hierarchy of mitigation measures that prioritises gross emissions reductions over carbon removals, and nature-based removals over CCS-based approaches. This hierarchy follows from a systematic and teleological interpretation and has concrete implications for EU and German administrative practice.

Philipp Günther is a German-qualified lawyer based in Berlin. He holds a PhD from the University of Rostock and an LL.M. from the University of Amsterdam. His research interests include energy, climate and public international law, with a focus on the regulation of carbon removal.