PhD Studentship - Carbon Removal in Pathways to Net Zero

Application deadline: 06/06/2025

How to apply: uom.link/pgr-apply-2425

No. of positions: 1

This 3.5 year project is fully funded for home and overseas students. The successful candidate will receive an annual tax free stipend set at the UKRI rate (£20,780 for 2025/26) and the tuition fees will be paid. We expect the stipend to increase each year.

Delivering Net Zero will require not only deep emissions reductions across all sectors of the economy but also the large-scale removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to address residual and hard-to-abate emissions. Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is increasingly central to national and international climate strategies, yet its role remains contested, particularly regarding timing, scale, equity, and sustainability. Questions around the fair distribution of CDR responsibilities — between countries, regions, and generations — are emerging as key concerns in both academic and policy debates.

This PhD will explore how different CDR approaches — including engineered options like bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), direct air capture (DACCS), and nature-based solutions — can be responsibly integrated into pathways to Net Zero. It will use an interdisciplinary approach (using quantitative and qualitative methods) to examine how the role of CDR evolves over time, under different assumptions about mitigation ambition, overshoot, equity, and feasibility. The research will engage with national and international policy contexts, drawing on integrated assessment model (IAM) outputs to explore trade-offs and policy levers for guiding strategies for near- and long-term deployment of CDR.

Project Scope:

Key research questions include:

1. What role can CDR play in national and international Net Zero strategies?
2. How do fairness and equity considerations influence the timing and scale of CDR deployment?
3. How does near-term CCS infrastructure deployment, enable or limit future BECCS/DACCS deployment after 2030?
4. How can IAM scenario outputs be interpreted and used to inform national policy decisions?

The project will include a comparison of results across national and global contexts. It will critically assess the implications of climate overshoot and delayed mitigation for future CDR requirements and explore policy options for aligning CDR deployment with principles of climate justice.

This project welcomes applicants from all disciplinary backgrounds, including environmental science, geography, engineering, policy, and economics - who are interested in shaping the future of carbon removal and climate policy. The successful candidate will be encouraged to steer the direction of the research and will join a vibrant interdisciplinary research environment with opportunities for collaboration with policy and industry partners.

Applicants should have, or expect to achieve, at least a 2.1 honours degree or a master’s (or international equivalent) in a relevant science or engineering related discipline.

To apply please contact the main supervisor Dr. Diarmaid Clery - diarmaid.clery@manchester.ac.uk. Please include details of your current level of study, academic background and any relevant experience and include a paragraph about your motivation to study this PhD project.

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