Measuring what matters for carbon removal

Research on and early deployment of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies are rapidly expanding. Approaches such as direct air capture with geological storage, ocean alkalinity enhancement, and enhanced rock weathering aim to produce drawdown and long-term storage of atmospheric CO₂. Efforts increasingly prioritize evaluating environmental and social implications through research and monitoring, but the focus to date tends to overlook critical insights from social science scholarship. In this paper, we argue that social science perspectives are essential—not supplementary—to designing robust environmental research and monitoring frameworks for the emerging CDR sector. Drawing on scholarship examining environmental metrics, standards and classification systems, and the politics and performative power of measurement, we demonstrate that measurement is never merely technical but inherently shaped by values, power relations, scientific cultures, and epistemic choices—that is, decisions about what counts as valid and legitimate knowledge. We highlight six lessons for the field, drawing on cases from markets for carbon and ecosystem services, Indigenous environmental monitoring and data governance, biodiversity conservation, environmental hazards estimation, and international development, all domains where efforts to ‘measure’ have grappled with issues of standardization, justice, and unintended consequences. Drawing on these lessons, we outline a framework for carbon removal researchers and practitioners to reflect upon to design more robust, responsible, and just research and evaluation systems for the emerging field.