About 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide are removed from the atmosphere annually, states an independent report led by the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment (University of Oxford). However, given the huge level of emissions, countries need to ramp up investments in greenhouse gas removal technology and continue to reduce gas emissions. This is crucial if the Paris Agreement target of keeping global warming below 2°C against pre-industrial levels is to be met, the report warns.
The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal report noted that forests account for most of the 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide removed annually from the atmosphere despite the growing number of CO2 removal technologies. This, however, is not enough given that global carbon dioxide emissions have been gradually increasing since 1940, when the records began, reaching 35.26 and 37.12 billion metric tons in 2020 and 2021, respectively.
Commenting on this state of affairs, Dr. Steve Smith, a lead author of the report, said:
“To limit warming to 2°C or lower, we need to accelerate emissions reductions. But the findings of this report are clear: we also need to increase carbon removal too. Many new methods are emerging with potential.”
The report says that, at present, there is a gap between what needs to be done to meet the target and what is being done to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. Countries have pledged to increase carbon dioxide removal by between 0.1 billion and 0.65 billion tons yearly by 2030 and between 1.5 billion and 2.3 billion tons yearly by 2050 in an attempt to prevent global warming exceeding 2 degrees compared to pre-industrial levels. Yet, according to projections, in order to meet this objective by 2050, in addition to the 2 billion tons of CO2 removed annually, countries need to secure a further removal of 0.96 billion tons of CO2 by 2030 and 4.8 billion tons annually by 2050.
Fig.1. Carbon dioxide removal (GtCO2/yr), proposed levels compared to three Paris-relevant scenarios in 2030 and 2050
Source: State of Carbon Dioxide Removal report
Carbon removal involves the capture of CO2 from the atmosphere and storing this in the ocean, on land, or in products for a long period of time. The report states technologies are currently responsible for 0.1% of carbon removal – about 2.3 million tons annually. These technologies can be either direct air capture technologies or power plants that simultaneously produce energy and remove emissions. The authors of the report state that if we consider current progress towards developing new CO2 removal technologies, by 2025 the total amount of carbon dioxide captured per year in this way could rise to only 11.75 million tons. The report’s authors point out the need to increase global public investment in removal technologies. They noted that funding for carbon dioxide removal research amounted to US$4.1 billion from 2010 to 2022 and the new CO2 removal technologies investment reached US$200 million between 2020 and 2022.
“Governments could have supported carbon dioxide removal [and] invested in them much more for quite a while already, but they haven’t. To understand why that is, or why that might be the future and what to do about it, we really need to pay explicit attention to the politics and the political economy surrounding carbon dioxide removal,” Nils Markusson, an environmental and social scientist at the University of Lancaster, UK, said.
The report recommends that to meet the Paris Agreement target, countries should accelerate emissions reduction, increase conventional CDR, and rapidly scale up novel CDR simultaneously.
“Actionable policy proposals, with standardized transparent reporting and involving societal deliberation, will support and shape these outcomes in a manner that acknowledges both the urgency of the challenge and issues such as policy costs, hazards, and land-use conflicts,” the report notes.
Global warming is largely caused by greenhouse gas emissions. CO2 is released into the atmosphere when fossil fuels such as oil and gas are burnt and its accumulation in the atmosphere has dramatically increased since 1850.
Fig.2. CO2 heats the Earth
Source: Deutsche Welle (DW)