RMI Charts Innovation Breakthroughs for 14 Carbon Removal Approaches in New Frontiers Report

Carbon dioxide removal has made real progress over the past decade, but the gap between where the field is and where it needs to be is still enormous. RMI (Rocky Mountain Institute) is taking a hard look at what it will actually take to close that gap. On October 8, 2026, the nonprofit clean energy institute published the New Frontiers Report for CDR, a detailed assessment authored by Rudy Kahsar, Annina Sartor, and Eli Weaver that maps priority innovation opportunities across the full carbon removal portfolio. The report is designed to give innovators, public and private funders, developers, research institutions, and policymakers a clearer picture of where targeted investment can have the greatest impact.

The report covers 14 distinct CDR approaches across three broad categories: biogenic (bCDR), geochemical (gCDR), and synthetic (sCDR). For each approach, RMI's team assessed near-term deployment trends based on project pipelines over a five-year horizon, identified the major drivers of cost across eight categories, and mapped out scale-up tradeoffs, resource constraints, and supply chain needs. The goal is to go beyond describing the current state of each pathway and zero in on the specific innovation breakthroughs that could fundamentally change cost curves and deployment viability.

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Timelines, Cost Drivers, and Deployment Constraints

Each of the 14 CDR pathway sections in the report includes a 30-year historical timeline that tracks key scientific, commercial, policy, and funding milestones. Combined with the cost analysis across eight categories, this gives funders and developers a structured baseline for comparing approaches and identifying where innovation could unlock the biggest step-change improvements. The report also documents integration opportunities, synergies between pathways, and where supply chain limitations could constrain even the most promising technologies.

Where Cross-Cutting Innovations Could Multiply Impact

One of the report's more significant findings is that several enabling technologies have the potential to accelerate multiple CDR approaches at once. Automation, remote sensing, advanced materials, and synthetic biology all show cross-cutting potential that spans biogenic, geochemical, and synthetic pathways. Rather than picking winners, RMI makes the case that investing in these enabling capabilities could deliver compounding returns across the broader CDR portfolio, which matters a lot when public and private capital is still limited relative to the scale of the challenge.

From Insights to Action: Rapid Development Plans

The report doesn't stop at identifying breakthrough opportunities. RMI proposes a follow-on workstream built around Rapid Development Plans (RDPs), which are structured roadmaps intended to move the most promising innovation ideas from early-stage concepts through research, demonstration, and commercialization at scale. The organization is currently seeking funding to develop this next phase, framing the RDPs as a practical bridge between analytical insight and real-world deployment.

Why Innovation Timing Is Critical

The urgency behind this report is hard to overstate. UNEP's Limiting Overshoot report, released in September 2026, made clear that the world is now likely to temporarily exceed 1.5°C of warming, and that bringing temperatures back down will require sustained net-negative CO2 emissions. The IPCC has similarly identified CDR as unavoidable for any pathway targeting mid-century net zero. Whether carbon removal technologies can actually deliver at gigaton scale depends on technical cost reductions and scalability improvements that need to start happening now, not in 2040.

About RMI

RMI is an independent nonprofit founded in 1982 that works to transform global energy systems through market-driven solutions aligned with a 1.5°C future. Its CDR team focuses on advancing carbon removal through open science, market development, innovation support, and policy work. RMI maintains offices in Colorado, New York City, Oakland, Washington, D.C., and Beijing.