CDR: high hopes, hardly any clue

weltweit groesste Anlage zur direkten Abscheidung und Speicherung von CO2 — This installation in Iceland can only extract a few thousand tons of CO2 from the air and store it underground. It is currently considered the largest in the world.

To meet the Paris climate targets, carbon dioxide must be removed from the atmosphere. But many carbon dioxide removal (CDR) methods are still in their infancy. Scientists are now urging policymakers to quickly devise a plan to promote negative emissions.

Worldwide, mankind currently emits more than 41 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. If other greenhouse gases are included, the volume rises to around 50 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents. At the same time – and this is an initial estimate – around two billion metric tons of carbon dioxide are removed from the atmosphere each year. But most of this is the result of reforestation. New technologies contribute only two million tons to carbon removal.

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