An idea scientists once envisioned would help remove small amounts of carbon from the atmosphere is steadily being built up as a global excuse to keep on burning fossil fuels. The technology, which was originally seen as a way to suck down “residual emissions” from industries like cement and steel, is now the object of a burgeoning international industry. It has already attracted the attention of major petrostates, like Saudi Arabia, as well as oil and gas companies that have touted its potential, as your host and Corbin Hiar reported today. “Carbon removal technologies offer an easy way out, to cover up business as usual, and the expansion of [polluting] industries right now — without any of the major transformations we need to see in rapid emissions cuts,” said Lili Fuhr, director of the fossil economy program at the Center for International Environmental Law, a nonprofit advocacy group. Researchers are racing to develop new carbon removal technologies. Startups today are exploring everything from special carbon-sequestering minerals sprinkled into the ocean to giant machines that guzzle pollution directly out of the air. But the core issue is that the international promotion of carbon removal has emerged well before the technology has reached a scale large enough to offset even modest residual emissions. Now the field’s growing popularity has divided scientists over how much money and attention the world should devote to it — and whether it holds real promise or largely distracts from making painful cuts in pollution. Last March, the leader of Occidental Petroleum, Vicki Hollub, said the technology “gives our industry a license to continue to operate for the next 60, 70, 80 years.” As interest grows, some experts suggest that clearer global guidelines from the U.N. could help ensure carbon removal doesn’t become a force for climate action lollygagging. At the very least, they say, nations must deliver more clarity on their expectations for their own leftover emissions and carbon removal strategies in the coming decades. Oliver Geden, who leads the climate policy and politics group at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, said having clear plans in place, which other countries can review and critique, could help avert “magic-bullet thinking” — and avoid the assumption that carbon removal can mop up the world’s messes in the years to come.
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