Hi all,

We are happy to share our latest study on public support of CDR, published in Nature Climate Change and acknowledging GENIE:

Fritz, L., Losi, L., Merk, C. et al. Public support for novel carbon removal hinges on procedural and distributive fairness. Nat. Clim. Chang. 16, 1152–1161 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-026-02741-7

We asked 10,852 people in Italy, Norway, the UK, Brazil, Malaysia, and Saudi Arabia to judge hypothetical carbon removal projects, varying who implements them, whether local communities or experts are consulted, how profits are handled, and how much carbon is removed.

We find that getting procedural and distributive fairness right is key:

Consulting local communities and scientific experts in the planning of projects was the strongest driver of public support. Procedural fairness needs to be built into carbon removal governance.
Even high removal capacity could not compensate for unfair decision-making or profit distribution. Getting the technology right is not enough.
The public favoured benefit-sharing and not-for-profit models inspired by public utilities, whereas privatized profits attracted the least support. Alternative profit and ownership models are worth exploring.

The paper is accompanied by a policy brief (also attached).

Curious to hear your thoughts!

Best wishes

Livia

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Livia Fritz

Assistant Professor
Department of Geography and Environment &

Institute for Environmental Sciences (ISE)

University of Geneva
A301, Boulevard Carl-Vogt 66, 1205 Geneva