Carbon capture nets 2 billion tonnes of CO2 each year — but it’s not enough

Read the full story in Nature.

More than 2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide is being removed from Earth’s atmosphere each year, according to an analysis of global efforts to capture and store the greenhouse gas.

But this will not be enough to meet the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to less than 2 °C above pre-industrial temperatures, even with pledges from governments worldwide to increase carbon dioxide removal (CDR) rates and invest in new technologies.

The report, called The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal, provides the first global estimates of the total amount of carbon that is being sucked out of the air each year, and predicts how much this will have to increase under various emissions scenarios. It was published on 19 January.