Carbon removal sector sees a growth spurt
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Developments in the science, business and policy spheres underscore the potentially major role for cutting-edge technologies and nature-based ways that remove carbon from the atmosphere.
Why it matters: Both cutting present-day emissions and removing the planet-warming carbon dioxide that's already in the atmosphere are needed to bring emissions to net zero by 2050, and net negative thereafter.
Driving the news: With policies and technology deployment in the U.S. on the emissions-cutting side of the carbon ledger suddenly thrown fundamentally into question under this White House, the carbon removal sector is having a growth spurt.
- Companies, such as tech giants Microsoft and Google, have announced significant carbon removal agreements in recent months.
Zoom in: The Carbon Removal Alliance, an industry group seeking stronger state and federal policies to incentivize such technologies, is staffing up.
- Noah Deich, who most recently served as deputy assistant secretary of Energy for carbon management under President Biden, is joining the group's board, the group told Axios exclusively.
- Deich had previously co-founded the nonprofit Carbon180.
- The group is also creating a Science Advisory Board to help evaluate new members and bring additional scientific heft to its policy development work, the alliance said in a statement.
- The alliance advocates for projects that bring permanent and verifiable removal that is net carbon-negative.
The big picture: The Trump administration's spending freeze on the Biden climate law is calling into question numerous clean energy projects nationwide, many of which had received federal funding commitments.
- At the same time, questions are growing about the pace and intensity of global warming to date after January came in record hot, following extreme and as-yet not fully explained warmth during the past two years.
- This week, veteran climate scientist James Hansen warned in a new study that the rate of global warming has sped up during the past 15 years, and the higher temperature target of the Paris Agreement, which is 2°C of warming, will almost certainly be reached or exceeded.
- While other climate scientists question Hansen's new findings, it's clear that we are in a more rapid warming phase — the length and full causes of which aren't fully clear.
Reality check: Legitimate scientific disagreements remain about the recent rates and causes of faster warming. But there's no dispute about the leading cause — human emissions of greenhouse gases, such as coal, oil and natural gas.
Yes, but: While corporate enthusiasm for carbon removal may be heating up, the funding freeze is affecting major infrastructure projects for direct air capture, a key form of removal.
The bottom line: Addressing climate change requires action on both sides of the carbon ledger: emissions and removal.
- Perhaps more progress will be made in the next few years — at least in the U.S. on the removal side, where the politics are less toxic.
