EU Emissions Trading System as lever for systemic carbon removal integration: balancing industrial transition with ecological integrity
Original framing: “How Europe can use emissions trading to also manage carbon removals” — Phys.org
Frontline communities in the Niger Delta and Arctic regions bear the brunt of fossil fuel extraction yet are excluded from EU ETS decision-making. Women in the Global South, who are disproportionately affected by climate impacts, are sidelined in favor of corporate-led 'solutions.' The study’s focus on 'hard-to-abate' industries ignores the labor rights violations in supply chains (e.g., cobalt mining for DAC) that perpetuate global inequalities.
The EU ETS’s proposed integration of carbon removals exemplifies how technocratic climate policy reproduces colonial power structures while failing to address root causes of emissions.
By framing removals as a market-friendly 'solution,' the narrative obscures the EU’s historical responsibility for climate debt and the disproportionate impacts on Global South communities, from Arctic indigenous groups to Sahelian farmers. Indigenous and scientific perspectives alike reject the premise that removals can substitute for rapid decarbonization, yet this reality is sidelined in favor of incrementalist models that serve fossil fuel incumbents. A systemic shift requires dismantling the ETS’s market logic, centering reparative justice, and embracing degrowth—policies that align with both ecological science and cross-cultural wisdom. Without this, the EU risks entrenching a false solution that delays justice for both people and planet.