Carbon capture vital

Geophys. Res. Lett. 34, L19703 doi:10.1029/2007GL031018 (2007)

Credit: Punchstock

Removal of carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere is essential for combating climate change, suggests a new study. Most efforts to mitigate global warming focus on reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, most notably CO₂. But that in itself will not be enough, say scientists.

A team led by Andrew Weaver at the University of Victoria in Canada used a well-tested climate model of the oceans and atmosphere to simulate CO₂ emissions and global temperature over the next 500 years. They found that unless emissions are reduced by more than 40% over the next 40 years, the Earth will warm by more than 2 °C this century, breaching the temperature threshold beyond which many scientists think there will be dangerous consequences. Even if CO₂ emissions were stabilised to a tenth of current levels, temperatures would rise by more than 2 °C eventually. This suggests that nothing short of active removal of CO₂ from the atmosphere is necessary to avoid unmanageable warming.

Capture and sequestration of CO₂ directly from the atmosphere is not yet viable on a large scale. But this latest research suggests the need to develop artificial carbon sequestration methods, and fast.