Removal of atmospheric carbon dioxide through human activity
This article is about removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. For technologies that remove carbon dioxide from point sources, see Carbon capture and storage.
Planting trees is a nature-based way to temporarily remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.[1][2]
Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is a process in which carbon dioxide (CO2) is removed from the atmosphere by deliberate human activities and durably stored in geological, terrestrial, or ocean reservoirs, or in products.[3]: 2221 This process is also known as carbon removal, greenhouse gas removal or negative emissions. CDR is more and more often integrated into climate policy, as an element of climate change mitigation strategies.[4][5] Achieving net zero emissions will require first and foremost deep and sustained cuts in emissions, and then—in addition—the use of CDR ("CDR is what puts the net into net zero emissions"[6]). In the future, CDR may be able to counterbalance emissions that are technically difficult to eliminate, such as some agricultural and industrial emissions.[7]: 114
CDR includes methods that are implemented on land or in aquatic systems. Land-based methods include afforestation, reforestation, agricultural practices that sequester carbon in soils (carbon farming), bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), and direct air capture combined with storage.[7]: 115 There are also CDR methods that use oceans and other water bodies. Those are called ocean fertilization, ocean alkalinity enhancement,[8] wetland restoration and blue carbon approaches.[7]: 115 A detailed analysis needs to be performed to assess how much negative emissions a particular process achieves. This analysis includes life cycle analysis and "monitoring, reporting, and verification" (MRV) of the entire process.[9] Carbon capture and storage (CCS) are not regarded as CDR because CCS does not reduce the amount of carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere.
As of 2023, CDR is estimated to remove around 2 gigatons of CO2 per year.[10] This is equivalent to about 4% of the greenhouse gases emitted per year by human activities.[11]: 8 There is potential to remove and sequester up to 10 gigatons of carbon dioxide per year by using those CDR methods which can be safely and economically deployed now.[11] However, quantifying the exact amount of carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere by CDR is difficult.
^Buis, Alan (November 7, 2019). "Examining the Viability of Planting Trees to Help Mitigate Climate Change". Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
^Marshall, Michael (May 26, 2020). "Planting trees doesn't always help with climate change". BBC. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
^IPCC, 2021: "Annex VII: Glossary". Matthews, J.B.R., V. Möller, R. van Diemen, J.S. Fuglestvedt, V. Masson-Delmotte, C. Méndez, S. Semenov, A. Reisinger (eds.). In "Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change". Masson-Delmotte, V., P. Zhai, A. Pirani, S.L. Connors, C. Péan, S. Berger, N. Caud, Y. Chen, L. Goldfarb, M.I. Gomis, M. Huang, K. Leitzell, E. Lonnoy, J.B.R. Matthews, T.K. Maycock, T. Waterfield, O. Yelekçi, R. Yu, and B. Zhou (eds.). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, pp. 2215–2256, doi:10.1017/9781009157896.022
^Schenuit, Felix; Colvin, Rebecca; Fridahl, Mathias; McMullin, Barry; Reisinger, Andy; Sanchez, Daniel L.; Smith, Stephen M.; Torvanger, Asbjørn; Wreford, Anita; Geden, Oliver (March 4, 2021). "Carbon Dioxide Removal Policy in the Making: Assessing Developments in 9 OECD Cases". Frontiers in Climate. 3: 638805. doi:10.3389/fclim.2021.638805. hdl:1885/270309. ISSN 2624-9553.
^Geden, Oliver (May 2016). "An actionable climate target". Nature Geoscience. 9 (5): 340–342. Bibcode:2016NatGe...9..340G. doi:10.1038/ngeo2699. ISSN 1752-0908. Archived from the original on May 25, 2021. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
^Ho, David T. (April 4, 2023). "Carbon dioxide removal is not a current climate solution — we need to change the narrative". Nature. 616 (7955): 9. Bibcode:2023Natur.616....9H. doi:10.1038/d41586-023-00953-x. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 37016122. S2CID 257915220.
^ abcM. Pathak, R. Slade, P.R. Shukla, J. Skea, R. Pichs-Madruga, D. Ürge-Vorsatz,2022: Technical Summary. In: Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [P.R. Shukla, J. Skea, R. Slade, A. Al Khourdajie, R. van Diemen, D. McCollum, M. Pathak, S. Some, P. Vyas, R. Fradera, M. Belkacemi, A. Hasija, G. Lisboa, S. Luz, J. Malley, (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA. doi: 10.1017/9781009157926.002.
^Cite error: The named reference wri-ocean was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference :10 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ abNational Academies of Sciences, Engineering (October 24, 2018). Negative Emissions Technologies and Reliable Sequestration: A Research Agenda. National Academies Press. ISBN 978-0-309-48452-7. Archived from the original on November 22, 2021. Retrieved February 22, 2020.
and 28 Related for: Carbon dioxide removal information
Carbondioxideremoval (CDR) is a process in which carbondioxide (CO2) is removed from the atmosphere by deliberate human activities and durably stored...
climate change by reducing the amount of carbondioxide in the atmosphere. There are two main types of carbon sequestration: biologic (also called biosequestration)...
Climate engineering (or geoengineering) is an umbrella term for both carbondioxideremoval and solar radiation modification, when applied at a planetary scale...
several hundreds or thousands of years. Biochar CarbonRemoval falls into the category of carbondioxideremoval (CDR) technologies. It is considered to be...
Extracorporeal carbondioxideremoval (ECCO2R) is the removal of carbondioxide (CO2) from the bloodstream in people who have elevated levels of carbondioxide as...
credit represents a reduction, avoidance or removal of one metric Tonne of carbondioxide or its carbondioxide-equivalent (CO2e). Offset projects that take...
designed to remove carbondioxide from the air permanently. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), carbonremoval technologies are...
Carbondioxide is a chemical compound with the chemical formula CO2. It is made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded...
complement, not replace, greenhouse gas emissions reduction and carbondioxideremoval. For example, the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report concurs: "There is...
emissions describes the state where emissions of carbondioxide due to human activities and removals of these gases are in balance over a given period...
This biofuel can actually be carbon negative not just carbon neutral. Carbon negative processes decrease carbondioxide in the air reversing the greenhouse...
retention, is a condition of abnormally elevated carbondioxide (CO2) levels in the blood. Carbondioxide is a gaseous product of the body's metabolism and...
whether carbondioxideremoval techniques will be able to play a large role in limiting warming to 1.5 °C. Policy decisions that rely on carbondioxide removal...
for Climate Engineering Carbondioxideremoval Greenhouse gas removal Biochar Bio-energy with carbon capture and storage Carbon sequestration Direct air...
geologic sequestration or land application, respectively, enabling carbondioxideremoval (CDR). The potential range of negative emissions from BECCS was...
and storage, the capture of carbondioxide from large point sources Carbondioxideremoval, the removal of carbondioxide from ambient air This disambiguation...
Over the past 200 years, the rapid increase in anthropogenic CO2 (carbondioxide) production has led to an increase in the acidity of the Earth’s oceans...
Carbon capture and utilization (CCU) is the process of capturing carbondioxide (CO2) from industrial processes and transporting it via pipelines to where...
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a process in which a relatively pure stream of carbondioxide (CO2) from industrial sources is separated, treated...
used technology for carbondioxideremoval is called amine washing technology and is based on chemical absorption of carbondioxide. In chemical absorption...
Generation (SFOG) canisters. Carbondioxide is removed from the air by the Vozdukh system in Zvezda, one CarbonDioxideRemoval Assembly (CDRA) located in...
which cause climate change. The relevant greenhouse gases are mainly: Carbondioxide, Methane, Nitrous oxide and the fluorinated gases bromofluorocarbon...
Global Information