Attempting to filter enough carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere to make a significant impact on climate change would require hundreds of billions of dollars in government spending, according to a new report. The suite of technologies emerging to attempt that task all fall under an umbrella called carbon dioxide removal, or CDR. It’s still risky and astronomically expensive. But there’s been growing chatter about it, particularly as the US continues producing record amounts of oil and gas.
And the fossil fuel industry has embraced the technology, even using it to market supposedly more sustainable oil. Apparently, that still isn’t enough. The US will need the capacity to draw down a gigaton of CO2 by 2050 to meet net-zero goals, the report says. It’s an enormous amount of carbon dioxide to capture, equivalent to roughly 20 percent of the nation’s carbon footprint.