Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies that could be critical tools to combat climate change have developed in line with other technologies from the last century. However, according to new studies led by Gregory Nemet, a professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, these technologies need to develop faster to meet policy targets aimed at limiting global warming.
As policymakers, researchers and climate activists from around the world prepare to meet for the UN Climate Change Conference beginning on November 30, 2023, one lingering question is whether climate technologies are developing and scaling quickly enough to meet the demands of the Paris Agreement.
New research led by Nemet, who is a professor in the La Follette School of Public Affairs, finds that novel CDR methods need to scale at a much faster rate to meet the Paris Agreement’s temperature goal of limiting warming to 2 or 1.5 degrees Celsius. That goal would require removing hundreds of gigatons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere over the course of the century, making the scaling of novel CDR technologies particularly important.
Read more at University of Wisconsin-Madison
Image: Greg Nemet (Credit: University of Wisconsin-Madison)