Carbon removal technologies are essential to keep global warming within the boundaries of the Paris Agreement and capacity needs to grow substantially over the coming decades. Actions taken today, to support innovation and upscaling of these technologies, are important to enable economies of scale in the future.

Nordea focuses on reducing the emissions from its own operations as fast and extensively as possible. By the end of 2024 Nordea had reduced emissions from its own operations by 53% compared with 2019. Further, Nordea aims to deliver a positive carbon contribution in its own operations by the end of 2030, meaning that the amount of high-quality carbon removal credits will exceed the unabated emissions from its own operations.

In its carbon removal strategy, Nordea will work with companies developing carbon removal projects and over time establish a portfolio of high-quality carbon removal projects, with a preference for Nordic projects. For its first project, Nordea has signed a multi-year carbon removal agreement with the Norwegian company Inherit Carbon Solutions to remove at least 68,000 tonnes CO2 from the atmosphere.

The technology provided by Inherit Carbon Solutions captures CO2 from a biogas plant in Denmark, using agricultural organic waste as feedstock. After the CO2 is captured and liquified, it is transported to geological storage under the North Sea. This is referred to more specifically as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). The agreement will start generating carbon removal credits (receipts on the captured and stored CO2) in 2026, representing one of the very first BECCS plants to start operations in the Nordic region.

"We look forward to working on this exciting project with Inherit, as it is one of the first projects to start operations in the Nordic region. Through this commitment we are accelerating our operational sustainability efforts and, in addition, supporting the scaling of innovative solutions essential to reach long-term climate goals and keeping global warming within the boundaries of the Paris Agreement," says Peter Sandahl, Head of Climate & Environment at Nordea.

"We are excited to partner with Nordea on this groundbreaking project and to see that Nordea goes to such great lengths to accelerate the carbon removal industry. Together, we're taking an important step towards a net zero future, and we look forward to this collaboration going forward," says Kaja Voss, Co-CEO of Inherit. 

Fact box on carbon removals:
Carbon removal refers to the process of removing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and storing it durably in geological, terrestrial or ocean reservoirs for decades, centuries or millennia. There are both nature-based solutions and technical solutions to remove CO2 and the permanence of the storage depends on the solution used. The deployment of carbon removal solutions is critical in pathways to reach net zero by 2050.

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