![]() The big question is whether these approaches can deliver carbon removal at the scale needed in the coming decades.Įach carbon removal approach involves tradeoffs, including considerations around costs, resource needs (such as energy, land and water usage), the extent of local benefits or negative impacts, and technology readiness, among others. How Is CO2 Removed from the Atmosphere?Ĭarbon removal can take numerous forms, from new technologies to land management practices. The level of carbon removed today remains far below what we expect to need in the coming decades, indicating a need for investment in the public and private sectors to continue growing. This expansion was largely driven by a 2018 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which concluded that hundreds of billions of tons of carbon removal will be needed by the end of the century to meet global climate goals. In just five years, carbon removal has grown from a niche concept to a well-accepted component of climate portfolios and has received billions of dollars of federal funding and hundreds of millions of dollars in private investment. While enhancing natural carbon removal through reforestation and forest management has long been of interest, efforts to develop and deploy novel technologies and approaches have ramped up only recently. (For context, the United States emitted just over 6 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases in 2021.) The faster the world reduces its emissions in the near term, the less it will have to rely on carbon removal. Estimates, including both natural and technological carbon removal approaches, range from 5 to 16 billion metric tons per year globally by 2050. The latest climate model scenarios show that all pathways that keep temperature rise to 1.5 degrees C (with little or no overshoot) require carbon removal. The amount ultimately needed will depend on how quickly we can reduce emissions in the near term and whether - or by how much - we overshoot climate targets. How Important Is Carbon Removal in the Fight Against Climate Change? Carbon capture is a form of emissions reduction rather than carbon removal. Carbon removal strategies include familiar approaches like growing trees as well as more novel technologies like direct air capture, which scrubs CO2 from the air and sequesters it underground.Ĭarbon removal is different from carbon capture and storage (CCS), which captures emissions at the source - like a power plant or a cement producer - to prevent them from entering the atmosphere in the first place. ![]() ![]() What Is Carbon Dioxide Removal?Ĭarbon dioxide removal (or simply “carbon removal”) aims to help mitigate climate change by removing carbon dioxide pollution directly from the atmosphere. To keep global temperature rise to less than 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F), which scientists say is necessary for preventing the worst impacts of climate change, we’ll need to not only reduce emissions but also remove and store some carbon that’s already in the atmosphere. The latest climate science tells us, however, that these efforts alone aren’t enough. The imperative for combating climate change is to curb emissions rapidly - for example, by ramping up renewable energy, boosting energy efficiency, halting deforestation and curbing super pollutants like hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). Unless we make serious changes, climate impacts will only continue to intensify. ![]() This concentration of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the air causes the climate change impacts we’re experiencing today, from forest fires to stifling heat waves and damaging sea level rise - and the global community is still emitting more each year. Since the Industrial Revolution, humans have emitted more than 2,000 gigatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. ![]()
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