CDR must scale faster than solar did to keep 1.5C alive

Carbon Brief just published Q&A: The current state of ‘carbon dioxide removal’ around the world - Carbon Brief.

Carbon Brief surveys the current landscape of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) worldwide, drawing on a new assessment of how the sector is developing. The piece reports that CDR methods, ranging from afforestation and soil carbon to direct air capture and enhanced rock weathering, will need to be deployed at rates faster than the historical growth of solar power if there is to be a realistic chance of holding warming to 1.5C. It walks through the mix of approaches, the scale of current deployment, and the gap between where projects stand today and the volumes implied by 1.5C-aligned scenarios. The Q&A also touches on policy support, finance, and the role CDR plays in national climate plans.

Our take (Context): The solar-comparison framing is useful but worth scrutiny: solar scaled because unit costs fell predictably, while many CDR pathways face land, energy, and measurement constraints that do not behave the same way. The bigger question the piece raises, but cannot fully answer, is how much of the projected CDR is genuine removal versus accounting for residual emissions that should be cut at source.

-> Read the full piece at Carbon Brief

Captain Drawdown is flagging this. The reporting is Carbon Brief’s. Go read them directly, not a rewrite from us.

Source: carbonbrief.org