The tricky plan to pull CO2 out of the air
Will carbon dioxide removal work? It has to.
Subscribe and turn on notifications 🔔 so you don’t miss any videos: http://goo.gl/0bsAjO
In recent years, over 70 countries have committed to net-zero carbon emissions, aiming to become carbon neutral by mid-century. The 2015 Paris Agreement aimed to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius and ideally limit it to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. Despite global efforts, emissions are still rising, and achieving the 1.5-degree goal has become increasingly difficult.
Most pathways to keep warming below 2 degrees, and eventually return back to 1.5 rely on negative emissions, which involve pulling carbon dioxide from the atmosphere using carbon dioxide removal (CDR) methods like enhanced weathering and direct air capture.
However, these techniques are still in early development stages, and require land, energy, and money. Critics argue that relying on CDR implicitly encourages governments and companies to postpone necessary emissions reductions because counting on CDR now means relying on future generations of leaders to deliver on those promises. Preventing emissions is broadly less costly than cleaning them up after the fact. But even with dramatic cuts to emissions, experts say some amount of CDR will still be necessary.
Sources and further reading:
https://cdrprimer.org
https://www.stateofcdr.org/
https://www.carbonbrief.org/explainer-will-global-warming-stop-as-soon-as-net-zero-emissions-are-reached/
https://carbonplan.org/research/cdr-verification-explainer
https://carbonplan.org/research
https://www.eenews.net/articles/competition-heats-up-for-u-s-direct-air-capture-program/
https://skepticalscience.com/SkS_Analogy_10_Budgets_and_Bathtubs_2022.html
https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-environ-112320-105050
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/04122022/carbon-removal-fossil-fuels-wyoming/
https://www.climatewatchdata.org/net-zero-tracker
https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-which-countries-are-historically-responsible-for-climate-change/
https://www.carbonremovalalliance.org/
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cumulative-co2-emissions-region
https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/annual-co2-emissions-per-country
https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-what-the-new-ipcc-report-says-about-when-world-may-pass-1-5c-and-2c/
https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/US_accessibleLTS2021.pdf
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/solar-pv-prices-vs-cumulative-capacity?yScale=linear
https://newrepublic.com/article/166067/public-carbon-capture-climate
Make sure you never miss behind the scenes content in the Vox Video newsletter, sign up here: http://vox.com/video-newsletter
Vox is an explanatory newsroom on a mission to help everyone understand our weird, wonderful, complicated world, so that we can all help shape it. Part of that mission is keeping our work free.
You can help us do that by making a gift: http://www.vox.com/contribute-now
Watch our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/IZONyE
Follow Vox on TikTok: http://tiktok.com/@voxdotcom
Check out our articles: https://www.vox.com/
Listen to our podcasts: https://www.vox.com/podcasts
Shop the Vox merch store: http://vox.com/store
Watch our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/IZONyE
Follow Vox on Facebook: http://facebook.com/vox
Follow Vox on Twitter: http://twitter.com/voxdotcom
Follow Vox on TikTok: http://tiktok.com/@voxdotcom
Comments are closed.