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About UPTAKE

The UPTAKE research project is coordinated by the Foundation CMCC – Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici and will last 48 months from September 1st 2023 to October 31st 2027. UPTAKE is a Horizon Europe funded project..

Aim

UPTAKE aims to develop resilient CDR strategies based on strengthened scientific evidence on the social, technological, economic, and environmental characteristics of CDR technologies and their interplay. The scientific evidence will be collated into a CDR knowledge inventory, openly accessible to the science, policy, business communities. Together with improved CDR modules in climate-energy models, a CDR roadmap explorer will be developed to help identify resilient and implementable CDR portfolios which enable net-zero strategies.

Activities

UPTAKE project is organized into six closely interrelated work packages (WP). The co-design and co-creation of the conceptual models for understanding the role of CDR methods in shaping a climate-neutral future will be accomplished in WP1 by establishing an open CDR stakeholder forum for interactive communication and dissemination among CDR stakeholders from researchers to policymakers to technology developers and civil society. WP2 will comprehensively assess the CDR methods, considering the broader environmental, life cycle, economic, social, political, and governance implications, and ripple effects. It will generate information about the net impact of CDR methods on GHG emissions at different speeds and scales of deployment. In WP3, such information will enhance the parameterization of CDR methods in leading IAMs to better represent the regionally disaggregated socio-technical potential of CDR options in global and European decarbonization pathways. The WP4 studies the required conditions to enable a sustainable CDR upscaling. It will use an integrated approach where carbon removal adoption has a multifaceted undertaking spanning diverse areas of governance and regulation, policy, finance, ethics, equity, social acceptance, public services, international trade, and infrastructure development. WP5 collates results from previous WPs and develops the CDR knowledge inventory and a CDR roadmap explorer. Lastly, the project outcomes will be communicated through multiple channels, WP6, including a CDR stakeholder forum, an open-access CDR knowledge inventory, a repository for open-source CDR modules, and an interactive online CDR roadmap explorer.

Expected Results

UPTAKE will advance the understanding of the potential role of CDR in achieving European and global climate policy goals. The unique composition of the UPTAKE team and the wide range of methods and tools proposed by the team from engineering to climate-economic modelling, to political science and SSH assessment provide an opportunity to investigate the CDR question in depth and from a multifaceted, trans-disciplinary perspective. As a result, UPTAKE aims at:

  1. Providing, for the first time, a harmonised, comprehensive, integrated, and transparent CDR knowledge inventory of carbon removal methods and their comparative assessment going beyond the current technoeconomic analysis by including their broader environmental, life cycle, economic, social, political and governance implications, and ripple effects, as well as their role in an overall carbon mitigation portfolio.
  2. Advancing leading energy models, Integrated Assessment Models, and climate models by incorporating a detailed representation of various CDR methods, including geographical, sectoral, socioeconomic, demographic, and temporal heterogeneity, as well as focusing on their synergies and trade-offs.
  3. Designing a governance framework for upscaling CDR methods from idea to practice, including policy measures, business models, ethical, legal, financial, social aspects, as well as MRV considerations.
  4. Developing an interactive CDR roadmap explorer to provide a systemic view of just, resilient, and implementable CDR strategies at national, European, and global levels, accounting for the infrastructure requirements.
  5. Promoting open research and fostering transparency about CDR methods by creating a FAIR ecosystem for open datasets and modules/software used by climate models and IAMs developed in UPTAKE.
  6. Creating an open CDR stakeholder forum to gather all relevant stakeholders and actors and provide open access to research inventories, methods, and models used in UPTAKE.