Several new cutting-edge technologies for carbon removal and storage are grabbing the spotlight lately. We’re talking everything from using fungi powder to absorb and store carbon in the ground to tossing antacids (think Tums tablets) into the ocean to make it more carbon absorbent.
Every day seems to bring a new announcement about a potential technique for pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
But the challenges ahead for carbon removal are not only technological, said Romany Webb, research scholar and deputy director at Columbia’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. Getting the engineering and chemistry right is important, but not enough.
Key questions to answer include how to measure and finance these technologies, their potential impacts on ecosystems and buy-in from scientists, local communities and policy-makers. More importantly, there is a genuine concern that advances in carbon removal could look like an “easy out” that entices some emitters to lower their reduction targets, ultimately hindering the fight against climate change.
Removals and Reductions: While removals cannot replace reductions, both have become necessary, Webb said. “Because we’ve waited so long to reduce emissions, that’s not going to be sufficient by itself,” she said. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in 2022 that the deployment of carbon removal technologies is unavoidable to meet Paris Agreement targets.
Webb said she noticed a dramatic increase in interest in the last five to 10 years. A lot of the techniques are still in the early stages of development, she said, and research is still needed to evaluate how well they work.
Measuring Difficulties: In Australia, a startup has started producing a fungus powder that can absorb and store carbon in the ground when farmers add it to their farmland, The New York Times reports. Several other soil-based technologies use microbes, crushed volcanic rocks and leftover concrete powder in hopes of turning farmland into a carbon sink.
However, accurately monitoring and measuring the impact of these carbon removal techniques can be challenging. Measurements in soil, for example, can be affected by humidity.
In the case of ocean-based solutions, measurement can be even trickier. For example, iron can be added to the ocean to fertilize phytoplankton. These phytoplankton absorb carbon and take it to the bottom of the ocean when they die and sink. However, proof that this technique works has remained so elusive that research about it was paused for nearly a decade.
These questions of measurement pose challenges not only for efficacy but also for financing. Selling carbon credits can be generated by these technologies and help fund a project, but not without a clear way to measure their impact.
Energy Hogs: Direct air capture is one of the most advanced and popular of these novel techniques for carbon removal, said Webb. However, the process is quite energy-intensive, requiring large fans and heat to separate carbon dioxide from the air. New technologies are being developed to make the process less energy-intensive, which could allow it to grow in popularity.
Other techniques also require energy in less obvious ways. For example, some technologies require ground rocks and minerals to be added to the ocean to increase alkalinity and accelerate the ocean’s natural carbon sink process. This requires rock grinding, an incredibly energy-intensive process.
Social Support: One of the challenges for these technologies is getting buy-in from local communities, organizations and scientists. Plenty of people are skeptical. “It’s a ridiculously expensive way to reduce emissions,” Glen Peters from the Center for International Climate Research in Norway told E&E News last year.
Socially, tinkering with the environment is still somewhat taboo. This is especially true for ocean-based technologies, Webb said.
“A lot of people view the ocean as the last untouched part of the earth, and they’re very concerned about doing things that affect it,” she said. “People feel very strongly about what happens to the ocean.”
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Mathilde Augustin is a business journalist passionate about the intersection of climate and finance. She is a graduate of Columbia University in New York, where she received an M.A. in business and economics journalism and covered topics such as Canada’s logging industry and migrant workers building Paris Olympics facilities. She is French and Canadian and previously earned her B.A. in Political Science from McGill University.
