Short Brief on the State of Carbon Capture Research

Research into carbon capture and sequestration has shown both promise and disappointment. A 2010 study indicated that "negative emission technologies…significantly enhances the possibility to meet low concentration targets" (Azar et al, 2010). The American Geophysical Union has also called for further research (Landau, 2018). A recent article published in the Cambridge University Press called for a research agenda on NETS and stated: "There are many technological solutions to address climate change but unfortunately there are no silver bullets" (Nekuda, 2019).

Why We Need Carbon Capture and Sequestration

Carbon capture and sequestration have often been considered technologies of last resort. As emissions keep rising and global carbon budgets decline, it is becoming increasingly apparent that if we are to stave off the worst of climate change we must deploy and scale these desperate remedies as quickly as possible.

A Carbon Market for Aviation could Spur the Growth of NETs

There is an increasing need to curtail emissions from airlines. Traditional air travel generates some of the most damaging greenhouse gases but if carbon markets were used by the aviation industry it could provide a massive and much needed boost to negative emission technologies (NETs). Air travel currently accounts for about 2 percent of global carbon emissions but they are expected to quadruple by 2050.

Examples of Carbon Capture Technology

The need for negative emission technologies (NETs) is becoming increasingly apparent in the wake of our failure to draw-down atmospheric greenhouse gases. Plants can harvest the CO2 from the air and sequester it or sell it for agricultural or industrial applications. It can also be recycled and used to make synthetic fuel. This means that the same CO2 molecules could be used over and over again. Here are four examples of carbon capture technologies that may prove to be critical to our efforts to keep global temperatures from rising above the upper threshold limits. The first two suck carbon out of the air or water and the other two are used at source to capture carbon emissions.

Negative Emission Technologies are Our Last Hope

Negative emission technologies (NETs) are a necessary technological innovation. Such technologies reduce atmospheric emissions by removing CO2 from the point at which they are generated or from the ambient air. Rising emissions and dwindling carbon budgets make it abundantly clear that we need to find a way to drastically reduce atmospheric carbon.