Given the scale of the climate crisis, the short timeframe for action, and insufficient progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, there is broad scientific agreement that large-scale deployment of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies and approaches are needed to counter rising atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide. CDR encompasses a suite of solutions, both engineered and nature-based, that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and durably store it.
The climate crisis requires countries to cooperate on developing climate solutions, including engineered CDR technologies, that can be deployed at scale around the world. While nature-based CDR approaches are cheaper and more readily available in the short term, engineered CDR technologies can bring many advantages in addressing the climate crisis, including larger removal potentials, more durable carbon sequestration, greater scalability, and more locational flexibility. At the moment, however, these technologies are constrained by cost, energy needs, and potential land and climate impacts. There are also risks that relying too heavily on the eventual availability and scalability of engineered CDR will lead to delays in other mitigation efforts and continuation of business-as-usual practices. Advancing CDR technologies must not be used as an excuse for inaction on other carbon mitigation strategies.
Equally important, climate justice must be embedded in strategies to accelerate development and deployment of engineered CDR technologies. Engineered CDR projects could have impacts on local communities—either directly or by extending the lifetime of polluting industries—highlighting the need for robust stakeholder and community engagement. As CDR deployment progresses, there should also be opportunities for community ownership of CDR benefits, as well as efforts to ensure a just and well-managed transition of skills and expertise into new jobs in the emerging carbon removal sector.
A range of policy interventions could accelerate the equitable deployment of engineered CDR technologies, including the following:
Accelerating the equitable development and deployment of engineered CDR solutions by 2030 creates a greater chance of achieving gigaton-scale removals and ultimately net-zero emissions by 2050.
