Actionable strategies for CDR stakeholders 

CDR developers can lead with equity

• Use the analysis from this report to build stronger community engagement strategies and anticipate equity risks. 

• Embed environmental justice into site selection, impact assessment, and community benefit agreements. 

• The absence of disproportionate siting today presents an opportunity to keep it that way, while also focusing on distributive equity and meaningful benefits for frontline communities.

Policy tools to embed environmental justice into CDR

• Incorporate environmental justice (EJ) screening into state and federal permitting frameworks for CDR and other decarbonization projects. 

• Establish clear expectations around Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) and procedural equity in project development. 

• Design policy incentives that reward equitable project design.

Climate philanthropy and investment as catalysts

• Target funding and technical assistance toward frontline communities identified as likely future hosts for CDR. 

• Support civic capacity-building, legal expertise, and access to independent science so communities can shape CDR on their own terms. 

• High-integrity carbon removal requires community readiness, not just technological readiness.

Centering social integrity in the carbon market 

As the voluntary carbon market evolves, high-quality credits will increasingly be judged not only on carbon performance but on social integrity. Equity-centered CDR will help companies meet sustainability goals and avoid reputational and regulatory risks. Investing in just deployment now lays the foundation for long-term project success.

Most importantly, these insights will help shape evaluation frameworks for environmental justice within project design and siting as developers scale CDR over the coming years and decades.

A foundation for future inquiry

While our findings provide important baseline insights, they also raise new questions and point toward future research priorities across several critical areas including:

Community-centered CDR development

The path forward requires supporting community-led CDR initiatives that prioritize local leadership and ensure that affected communities have a meaningful voice in project development. This includes providing direct funding directly to community organizations so they can engage effectively with developers and maintain agency throughout project lifecycles. Equally important is ensuring that local community benefits accompany carbon removal projects, creating tangible positive impacts that extend beyond carbon metrics to include economic opportunities, environmental improvements, and social cohesion.

Capacity building for frontline communities

Effective community engagement requires addressing the significant information asymmetries that exist around CDR technologies and their impacts. Many communities lack access to the technical expertise needed to evaluate complex carbon removal proposals or understand their long-term implications. Building this capacity requires providing technical assistance and community education resources that are accessible, culturally appropriate, and community-controlled. It also means building advocacy capacity to help communities negotiate effectively in CDR project implementation so they are able to secure meaningful benefits and protections.

Understanding the full spectrum of CDR impacts

While our research found no current disproportionate siting patterns, we still need to understand the broader range of actual impacts, both negative and positive, to fully assess the environmental justice dimensions of CDR for frontline communities.

Future research must examine not just where projects are located, but how they affect community health, economic opportunities, air and water quality, and social cohesion. Some CDR approaches may create jobs and economic opportunities while improving local environmental conditions, while others may create changes that communities experience as burdens. Only by understanding this full spectrum can we determine whether CDR projects create net benefits or burdens for the communities where they operate.

The critical decade ahead

By 2050, the world must remove 10 billion tonnes of CO₂ annually to avoid catastrophic climate change. This will require the rapid deployment of a wide range of carbon removal strategies. But how and where those strategies are implemented will determine whether carbon removal becomes a driver of equity or a source of new harm.

This report is a first step in helping to ensure that CDR development is not only effective but just and equitable. The decisions made today about siting, engagement, and accountability, will shape the social fabric of carbon removal for generations.

Will CDR scale with frontline communities as partners and co-designers? The window to answer that question with intention is open now.