Skip to main content
MIT
Climate
Search

Main navigation

  • What We Know
  • What Can Be Done
  • Explore
    • Explainers
    • Ask MIT Climate
    • Podcast
  • News
  • Climate@MIT
  • Search

Main navigation

  • What We Know
  • What Can Be Done
  • Explore
    • Explainers
    • Ask MIT Climate
    • Podcast
  • News
  • Climate@MIT
  • Search
PostJuly 8, 2021

Carbon removal hype is becoming a dangerous distraction

Smoke stack with net symbolizing carbon capture

In February, oil giant Shell trumpeted a scenario in which the world pulls global warming back to 1.5 ˚C by 2100, even as natural gas, oil, and coal continue to generate huge shares of the world’s energy.

Among other things, Shell’s pathway involves rapidly installing carbon capture systems on power plants, scaling up nascent machines that can suck carbon dioxide directly out of the air, and planting enough trees to cover land nearly the size of Brazil in the hopes of absorbing billions of tons of the greenhouse gas.

This plan might be transparently self-serving, but Shell’s outsize ambitions for carbon removal are far from anomalous. A growing number of companies are setting up programs to create or trade carbon offsets, using tree planting, soil management, and other means to purportedly balance out emissions elsewhere. Meanwhile, numerous corporations and nations are announcing “net zero” emissions plans that rely upon these programs, and rapidly proliferating carbon-removal startups are highlighting what some consider overly rosy projections in their investor pitch decks.

The noise, news and hype are feeding a perception that carbon removal will be cheap, simple, scalable, and reliable—none of which we can count on.

Read the full article at: https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/07/08/1027908/carbon-removal-hype-is-a-dangerous-distraction-climate-change/

Image credits: Selman Design

Share
facebook linkedin twitter email compact
by MIT Technology Review
Topics
Carbon Capture
Climate Modeling
Energy
Fossil Fuels

Related Posts

PostJuly 15, 2021

Challenges and Opportunities for Decarbonizing Power Systems in the US Midc...

MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research
PostJuly 15, 2021

3 hurdles to sustainable investing — and how to overcome them

MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative
Three hurdles towards sustainable investing.
PostJuly 14, 2021

Water for a Warming Climate

MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research
PostJuly 14, 2021

The lurking threat to solar power’s growth

MIT Technology Review
A solar farm in California's Death Valley.

MIT Climate News in Your Inbox

 
 

MIT Groups Log In

Log In

Footer

  • About
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Accessibility
  • Contact
Environmental Solutions Initiative
MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge MA 02139-4307