Geological processes have caused large CO₂ fluctuations in the past and influenced the climate. In recent studies, massive CO₂ emissions have been detected at continental rifts. The EMERGE project links three innovative approaches to measure and model such CO₂ outgassing. First, will use innovative techniques to measure CO₂ fluxes at European and East African rifts. In addition, novel modeling techniques are being developed to investigate the controls of geodynamic processes on CO₂ transports in the lithosphere. A third approach is to integrate data from the last 540 million years of all known rifts worldwide. This will allow to understand the role of tectonic degassing at continental rifts in shaping Earth’s climate through time.