Invest in Technology for the removal of CO2 : Climate Change

Leading climate specialists declare in a recent study that technology to remove the greenhouse gas CO2 from our environment must be quickly increased.

Big reductions in CO2 emissions, according to scientists, won't be sufficient to stop global warming.

And nature won't be able to clear the air of it sufficiently on its own.

When fossil fuels like gas and oil are used, they release CO2, which is the main gas warming the earth.

“We must speed up carbon reductions if we want to keep global warming to 2C or below. However, the report's conclusions are unambiguous: we must also enhance carbon removal “says Oxford University's Dr. Steve Smith, the principal author. “Many novel approaches are developing with promise.”

Scientists agree that the main cause of global warming is that CO2 emissions, which are expected to total 33 billion tonnes by 2021, are significantly greater than those that are being removed from the atmosphere (this report suggests two billion tonnes a year).

Global temperatures are expected to increase until emissions and removals are balanced, or “net-zero.”

However, getting there won't be simple. According to the most recent UN climate assessments, some CO2 removal, often known as “negative emissions,” would be required to fully reach “net zero” in order to make up for industries that are difficult to decarbonize.

Currently, natural processes remove virtually all of the CO2 from the atmosphere. That is mostly due to soil-based absorption and storage of CO2 by plants, trees, and other vegetation.

But nature is only capable of so much. How much more of the planet, for instance, can reasonably be devoted to forests? Natural CO2 removal may treble by 2050, according to some pessimistic predictions, but it still still amounts to around 4 billion tonnes of CO2 annually.

Technological solutions?

According to a recent research titled “The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal,” investments in creating technical solutions must be made right away in order to limit and lower future increases in global temperatures.

The cited techniques are all relatively new and at various phases of research and implementation. Together, they now account for a very small portion of global CO2 reduction.

One, called BECCS, involves adding CO2 capture to biomass-based electricity generation, in which organic matter like crops and wood pellets is burnt to create energy. The use of specially treated charcoal (biochar), which locks in carbon, and “enhanced rock weathering,” which is loosely based on the carbon removal that occurs with natural erosion, are additional options. These include large facilities where the carbon is extracted from the air before being stored in the ground.

Technology for removing CO2 is not without its detractors. Some proponents are sceptical about their cost-effectiveness and worry that they will be used as a justification to put off and prolong the switch away from fossil fuels.

This research emphasises that reducing CO2 levels should not be considered a “silver bullet” to combat climate change and that in order to reach the UN's climate objectives, both technology and the natural world must work together to lower greenhouse gas levels.

All of that is presuming that global CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels would decline quickly, as promised at several climate meetings. Annual emissions have not yet begun to trend downward.

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