By Mathew Carr
July 13-14, 2022 — The world can use carbon removal to more than make up for the current production of co2 from fossil fuels, according to new UNFCCC data.
A total of as much as 35 billion metric tons could be removed per year, one billion tons more than the 34 billion produced last year by fossil fuels according to BP Plc.
See the chart below and document below it for the source data.
Markets can be adjusted to make this happen, including via the establishment of the new carbon market under article 6.4 of the Paris climate deal. But will they be?
See this post on LinkedIn:
Peter Zaman Partner at HFW
Those are pretty wide ranges applied to each solution. If we actually want to achieve the 1.5 degree target there has to be tighter control over how those technologies/solutions are deployed by whom, in what proportion and by when. Otherwise, it’s basically just leaving it to random luck that we get there. The Paris Agreement NDC framework is unlikely to deliver that level of needed control. We need a club of likeminded countries to get together and build a Bretton-Woods style solution to coordinate carbon budgets and removal activities. Maybe the recent G7 initiative can build on that.
Direct air carbon dioxide capture and storage
Capturing CO2 from ambient air through chemical processes with the subsequent storage
of the CO2 in geological formations is independent of the source and timing of emissions
and can avoid competition for land.
While the theoretical potential for direct air carbon dioxide capture and storage (DACCS)
is mainly limited by the availability of safe and accessible geological storage, the CO2
concentration in ambient air is so low that it requires much more energy than flue-gas CO2
capture. Water requirements for DACCS can also be high.
3.1.8. Enhanced rock weathering and ocean alkalinization
Weathering is the natural process of rock decomposition via chemical and physical
processes in which CO2 is spontaneously consumed and converted to solid or dissolved
alkaline bicarbonates and carbonates. Removals can be achieved by accelerating mineral
weathering through the distribution of ground-up rock material over land, shorelines or the
open ocean9
.
Ocean alkalinization adds alkalinity to marine areas to locally increase the CO2 buffering
capacity of the ocean. The marine application of ground minerals is limited by the feasible
rates of mineral extraction, grinding and delivery. As with other engineering-based CDR
options, scaling and maturity are challenges, with deployment at scale potentially incurring
considerable costs in transport and disposal.
3.1.9. Ocean fertilization
Nutrients can be added to the ocean, resulting in increased biologic production, which lead
to carbon fixation in the sunlit ocean and subsequent sequestration in the deep ocean or
sea floor sediments. The added nutrients can be either micronutrients, such as iron, or
macronutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorous.
Only small-scale field experiments and theoretical modelling have been conducted so far
See here.
For last year’s emissions, see this:
For CarrZee’s earlier chart, from April, on the same topic:
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