Carbon Removal in Austria – National Policy Overview

Carbon Removal Policy in Austria

An overview of CDR estimates for Austria. For a full look at the sources for these calculations, see here

Explore Austria's CDR contributions

Austria's policy progress

Target Year

2040

Target Type

Climate neutral

Separate target for emission reduction and removals:

No

GHG emissions:

70 MtCO₂e

Target Status

In law

CDR Target:

No

Annual Removals:

1.3 MtCO2eq net removals in LULUCF sector (2020)

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Last updated: 15 Oct 2025

Net zero target

2040

First interim target

2030

Type of interim target

Emissions reduction target

GHGs covered

Carbon dioxide and other GHGs

Separate target for emission reduction and removals:

No

Historical emissions:

No

Annual reporting mechanism:

Less than annual reporting

In a nutshell

Austria’s carbon management strategy, published in June 2024, outlines many measures that will be implemented in two phases. CDR is covered extensively in the strategy.
Given its lack of a climate law, Austria is subject to the European Union’s goal of climate neutrality by 2050. In 2022, it launched a domestic emissions trading system to cover energy-related emissions from sectors not covered by the EU-ETS.
Austria has allocated significant funding to the Climate-Neutral Industry and Industrial Transformation Initiatives through the Climate and Energy Fund. CDR and CO₂ infrastructure could potentially benefit from these funds.
A new centrist coalition government was sworn in on 3 March 2025 and their program broadly continues the previous government’s policies when it comes to CCUS and CDR.

Role for carbon removal in national climate policy

Austria’s climate policy is partly on hold, as a new climate law still needs to be adopted. The climate law proposal is expected by the end of summer 2025. Traditionally, Austria solely focused on land-based CDR, mostly through the agriculture and forestry sectors. This focus is poised to change as novel CDR methods rise in the domestic agenda.

Austria lacked a recent comprehensive long-term climate strategy before submitting its final updated National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) at the end of 2024, the last one dating back to 2019. In its introduction, the NECP mentions the storage of carbon in the areas of agriculture and forestry, including in wood products and via technical sinks as one of the seven key themes.

The NECP sets out a goal of increasing net carbon storage in the land-use, land-use change, and forestry sector (LULUCF) but the precise target for 2030 is left for the now current federal government to decide. Several measures related to increasing carbon storage in wood products and forest floors have been laid out, as well as various measures aimed at soil carbon sequestration, some of which fall under the National Environmentally-Friendly Agriculture Program (ÖPUL) and the National Soil and Spatial Planning Strategy (ÖRUL). The NECP provides information on how Austria plans to deal with its unavoidable emissions. It states that unavoidable emissions from point sources will be dealt with through CCUS, whereas emissions from “smaller, unavoidable sources” will be compensated by negative emissions, either through LULUCF-based sinks or through technical solutions, such as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). The remaining emissions from the agricultural and waste management sectors will be compensated by LULUCF-based sinks. The amount of CO₂ that could be captured in 2030 is quantified at 500.000 tonnes in the NECP.

In June 2024, Austria published its Carbon Management Strategy, which provides extensive details about the country’s plans for CCUS and CDR. It quantifies the estimated needs for CDR to reach climate neutrality by 2040, defines the role of technical and natural CDR, and covers geological CO₂ storage and CCUS. It also provides a concrete action plan divided into three parts: 1) creating the basic legal framework, 2) infrastructure construction and implementation and 3) measures regarding natural sinks. It also calls for the reduction of counterproductive incentives and subsidies for polluting industries. A feasibility study was also released later in 2024.

The new government’s work programme has maintained the previous government’s commitments to reaching climate neutrality by 2040, repealing the ban on geological CO₂ storage, and implementing the Carbon Management Strategy. The programme foresees a framework for BECCS and the development of CO₂ transport infrastructure.

However, there is still no climate law since the former climate law expired in 2020. This lack of a legal framework is even more concerning given the fact that Austria is on track to miss its 2030 climate target by a substantial margin, as stated in the current version of the draft updated NECP. Therefore, the new government aims to adopt a Climate Act, which will establish an interministerial taskforce to draw up a climate roadmap, revise the NECP, set an annual emissions cap, and implement the Austrian NECP to achieve climate neutrality by 2040. The government programme also aims to set up incentives for natural carbon sink restoration, protection and development. Other measures which may support CDR include the increase in public procurement as a tool for investing in climate protection, as well as the development of blended public-private finance for key transformative research areas.

Relevant legal frameworks

The Climate Protection Act, which set Austria’s climate targets, expired in 2020. Therefore, the EU target of climate neutrality by 2050 applies. Following the recent increased ambitions in EU Climate Law, Austria must also reach 48% greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions in sectors not covered by the EU Emission Trading Scheme (EU-ETS) by 2030 compared to 2005 levels.

In October 2022, the National Emissions Certificates Trading Law (NEHG 2022) entered into force. This law creates an emissions trading system for energy-related GHGs produced by non-ETS sectors, namely agriculture, waste and small industrial plants. The system is in a transitional phase from 2022 until 2026, during which a fixed price increase is set per annually, EUR 30, 35, 45 and 55 per tonne respectively. From 2026, the trading of allowances will be permitted and a cap on emissions will be introduced. The revenues are set to be used on relief measures; a type of financial support given in specific situations.

Support for R&D and Innovation

A total of EUR 5 billion is dedicated to the Pact on Research, Technology and Innovation (FTI) (2023-2026), which includes CCUS as part of its climate neutrality and protection pillar.

The Climate and Energy Fund contributes EUR 310 million up until 2027 towards CCUS market-oriented research and pilot projects as part of the RTI Initiative for Transforming Industry. The fund also contributed EUR 10 million under the Energy Research programme, specifically its third call focusing on negative emission technologies for hard-to-abate emissions.

The Climate Change Centre Austria, a network of Austrian climate researchers, has positioned CCUS as an essential research focus. It has organised several events related to CCUS and CDR.

On the horizon

The National Carbon Management Strategy sets out many different measures around three parts:

1) Creating the basic legal framework which is expected before the end of 2025, including lifting the ban on geological CO2 storage and further revisions to the legal framework along the whole CCUS and CDR value chains.

2) Infrastructure construction and implementation, including coming up with CDR and CO2 capture, transport and storage targets and the creation of mechanisms to incentivise and support CDR/CCUS activities.

3) Measures regarding natural sinks, including several measures to improve the carbon sequestration capacities of different natural sinks, such as forests, soils and wetlands.

The new government will also produce a Climate Act, a framework for BECCS, and set up a dedicated task force for climate planning.

Carbon Removal Policy in Austria

In a nutshell

Role for carbon removal in national climate policy

Relevant legal frameworks

Support for R&D and Innovation

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On the horizon

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