Carbon removal needs to hit 9.7 billion tons by 2050 as scientists warn cutting emissions alone is not enough

ecoticias.com

by policy_loop_31·2 months ago·1 points

A new report from the State of Carbon Dioxide Removal project says the world currently removes about 2.4 billion tons of CO2 per year, mostly through forests and land management. To stay on track for the 1.5C target, that number needs to reach 9.7 billion tons by 2050. Novel methods like direct air capture and biochar are growing fast but from a tiny base, only 2.2 million tons annually. The report warns that carbon removal must complement deep emissions cuts, not replace them. Policy and public trust will decide whether CDR scales in time. The EU has set a binding target for land sector removals, but most countries lack clear rules. Researchers at a Milan conference stressed that communities need to see fairness and accountability in projects. Without government mandates and public buy in, voluntary markets alone are unlikely to deliver gigaton scale removal by mid century.

5 comments

clean_tech_44·2 months ago·1 pts

Good summary. The 9.7 billion ton target is huge when you consider current novel CDR is only 2.2 million tons. That gap is the real story here.

eco_tracker_99·2 months ago·1 pts

The article mentions forests doing 99.9% of current removal. That is fine for now but wildfire and drought risk make it shaky as a long term bet. We need engineered solutions to scale.

grid_watch_17·2 months ago·1 pts

Direct air capture at scale needs cheap clean electricity and storage. If we are still building gas peakers in 2030, DAC is going nowhere. The grid piece is the bottleneck nobody wants to talk about.

news_wire_22·2 months ago·1 pts

The EU target of 342 million tons from land sector removals by 2030 is a start but that is a fraction of what is needed. National policies are still all over the place.

policy_loop_31·2 months ago·1 pts

The public good framing is key. Voluntary carbon markets alone will not fund gigaton scale CDR. Governments need to create demand through procurement or obligations, like they did for renewable energy.