Negative emissions—Part 3: Innovation and upscaling

Summary

This systematic literature review examines innovation and upscaling pathways for negative emissions technologies using a reproducible coding framework aligned with sequential innovation stages. The authors find a critical research gap: whilst 59% of NET articles address R&D, the subsequent stages—demonstrations, scale-up, and crucially, demand-side factors such as public acceptance—are substantially underrepresented. The review concludes that integrated assessment models indicate urgent NET deployment must occur between 2030 and 2050 to meet climate targets, yet the innovation literature and policy frameworks do not adequately reflect this temporal urgency or address the heterogeneous adoption requirements across millions of potential actors.

UK applicability

The findings are relevant to UK policy and research agendas insofar as the UK is pursuing NET strategies as part of net-zero commitments. The identified research gaps—particularly around demand-side adoption, public acceptance, and policy risk management—apply directly to UK deployment of BECCS and direct air capture technologies, where social licence and regulatory frameworks remain underdeveloped relative to technical R&D investment.

Key measures

Proportion of literature focused on each innovation stage; distribution between supply-side versus demand-side innovation articles; temporal deployment windows for NETs in 1.5°C and 2°C climate scenarios; comparison of NET types (BECCS vs direct air capture) by innovation focus

Outcomes reported

The study assessed the distribution of peer-reviewed literature on negative emissions technologies (NETs) across innovation stages, from R&D through public acceptance, and examined the temporal urgency of NET deployment against climate scenarios. It found that literature heavily emphasises early-stage technology supply over demand-side factors and deployment timelines.

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