Carbon Dioxide Removal
Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) will be necessary to limit climate change, alongside reducing emissions. This report builds on the previous edition to track CDR development, strengthen core concepts and build a community around access to reliable CDR data. Climate change is mainly being driven by emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2 ) to the atmosphere. These emissions come from human activities such as fossil fuel burning, land-use changes and industrial processes. Emissions of other greenhouse gases, such as methane and nitrous oxide, are exacerbating climate change further. Meeting the Paris temperature goal – to limit global temperature rise to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C – primarily requires rapid, deep and widespread reductions in emissions. CO2 emissions have a very long-lasting effect on the climate, causing global temperature to rise and stay elevated for millennia. Halting the rise in global temperature will therefore involve bringing emissions of CO2 down to net zero. Whereas emission reduction seeks to limit the amount of CO2 newly released to the atmosphere, CDR involves taking previously emitted CO2 out of the atmosphere. This chapter sets out the purposes of this report and how CDR is defined within this assessment. It also outlines the characteristics of key CDR methods and highlights the updates and upgrades that have been made since The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal 1st edition, published in 2023.
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