intro

CDRANet launched the Vancouver Porcess in early 2026. Despite sharing the namesake, this process isn’t a campaign to get the Vancouver Declaration adopted. Rather, the Vancouver Process starts from the realization that for many governments, the scaffolding for intergovernmental cooperation on CDR needs to be built before the details can be agreed upon. More established policy areas like health and energy benefit from longstanding international cooperation that makes common-ground agreements easier to facilitate (relatively speaking), whereas carbon removal has only a fraction of this policy and institutional history. Therefore, building a system where governments can share information and normalize ongoing learning and communication on CDR is an important step.

why GOVERNMENTS?

Scaling carbon dioxide removal is ultimately an infrastructure challenge. It requires long-term planning, standards development, just and transparent oversight and regulation, sustainable financing, workforce development, and coordination across jurisdictions. Throughout history, governments have played central roles in developing such systems—from transportation networks, to power and telecommunication grids, to sanitation and public health systems. And yet to date, much of the responsibility for scaling CDR has been left to voluntary carbon markets and private investment, which has not been able to scale CDR to climate-relevant levels. Experts incresingly agree that the time for greater government involvement has arrived.

Government benefits

  • CDR helps control long-term public costs. Climate change is already driving higher government spending on disaster response, infrastructure repair, health, water management, and ecosystem protection. As warming continues, these costs will rise. By slowing and eventually stabilizing temperatures, CDR can reduce future adaptation burdens and public liabilities, making it a practical tool for fiscal risk management.

  • CDR can help protect livelihoods and natural systems. Unchecked warming threatens ecosystems and the industries that depend on them, including fishing, forestry, agriculture, and mining. Well-governed CDR can help reduce climate damage and volatility over time, supporting the ecological foundations of traditional livelihoods.
  • CDR strengthens climate policy integrity. CDR does not replace emissions reductions; it addresses legacy emissions and sectors that are difficult to fully decarbonize. Credible pathways to climate stabilization include both. Government involvement helps ensure CDR complements existing climate commitments and strengthens the durability of climate policy overall.
  • CDR represents a major economic opportunity. Many global energy and climate analyses project CDR to become a trillion-dollar-plus industry by mid-century, supporting millions of skilled jobs in engineering, construction, operations, environmental management, and monitoring. Government engagement can help ensure this growth occurs under clear rules, delivers public value, and contributes to long-term economic resilience.
  • Governments are essential to scaling CDR responsibly. CDR depends on long-lived infrastructure, safeguards, monitoring, and stewardship—functions markets alone cannot provide. As with energy, transportation, water, and public health systems, governments are positioned to set standards, coordinate deployment, and ensure accountability. Early public leadership can reduce the risk of fragmented or poorly governed deployment later.

PARTICIPATING GOVERNMENTS & igoS

What the Vancouver Process adds to the existing climate policy landscape

A​ growing number of international initiatives are helping CDR through scientific assessment, innovation, market development, project deployment, investment mobilization, capacity-building, and diplomatic engagement. These efforts are essential and have helped lay the foundation for future CDR deployment.

The Vancouver Process builds on this work by focusing on a different but equally important question: how can governments prepare themselves to coordinate, govern, finance, and operationalize carbon management systems over the decades ahead?

As countries move from discussing CDR to deploying it at scale, they face a growing set of practical challenges: developing regulatory frameworks, establishing standards and MRV systems, coordinating infrastructure, designing procurement and finance mechanisms, building institutional capacity, engaging the public, and working across borders.

While many organizations contribute important pieces of this puzzle, governments still have relatively few opportunities to compare approaches, learn from one another, and collaborate on these shared implementation challenges.

The Vancouver Process provides a neutral forum for governments, supported by researchers, civil society, industry, and other stakeholders, to explore these questions together. Rather than replacing existing institutions, it seeks to connect and strengthen them by helping governments translate knowledge, ambition, innovation, and investment into effective long-term policy and implementation.

In this sense, the Vancouver Process is not a treaty, funding mechanism, research program, or technology initiative. It is a long-term collaborative process focused on helping governments learn, coordinate, and act together as carbon dioxide removal evolves from a niche activity into a core component of global climate policy.

Initiative Primary Focus Primary Function What Vancouver Adds
Paris Agreement / NDCs Climate commitments Establishes national climate goals and reporting frameworks Focuses on practical implementation, coordination, and policy learning related to CDR.
Article 6.4 Mechanism Carbon markets Creates rules for carbon crediting and international transfers Provides a government coordination forum regardless of whether crediting mechanisms are used.
COP Process Climate diplomacy Negotiation, consensus-building, and political coordination Supports sustained collaboration between governments outside formal negotiations.
Mission Innovation Clean energy innovation Accelerates research, development, demonstration, and deployment across multiple sectors Focuses specifically on government readiness, governance, and long-term implementation of CDR.
Mission Innovation – CDR Mission CDR innovation Advances CDR RD&D, demonstrations, and early deployment Extends beyond innovation into policy design, procurement, regulation, public administration, and international coordination.
Climate High-Level Champions Climate ambition Mobilizes non-state actors and political momentum Focuses on operational collaboration among governments rather than political mobilization.
Carbon Management Challenge Carbon management deployment Accelerates carbon management projects, investment, and deployment pathways Focuses on the public-sector institutions and frameworks needed to support deployment at scale.
UNEP Policy support and capacity-building Provides assessments, technical assistance, and convening support Provides a dedicated government-to-government forum focused specifically on CDR governance and implementation.
IPCC Scientific assessment Assesses climate science, mitigation pathways, and removals Focuses on translating scientific insights into practical government coordination and action.
CTCN (UN Climate Technology Centre & Network) Technology assistance Supports technology transfer and technical assistance projects Focuses on policy alignment, governance, and peer-to-peer government learning rather than project implementation.
GONE (Group of Negative Emitters) Political leadership on removals Encourages countries to pursue negative emissions pathways and demonstrate ambition Focuses on practical implementation challenges, institutional capacity, and government coordination across a broader range of countries and stakeholders.
Research and NGO Ecosystem Analysis and advocacy Produces research, recommendations, and technical expertise Provides a government-led venue for applying and operationalizing these insights.
Vancouver Process Government readiness and implementation Supports peer-to-peer learning, coordination, and collaboration on CDR governance, policy, finance, and deployment —

CONFERENCE IN VANCOUVER

CDR27