Between seven and nine billion tonnes of CO2 must be captured from the atmosphere by 2050, according to the second edition of the University of Oxford's report
The market for carbon capture has been growing thanks to corporate demand for carbon credits—a contested tool. Image: shutterstock
By 2050, humanity must durably remove four times as much CO2 from the air as today to cap global warming below the crucial target of two degrees Celsius, researchers said Tuesday.
But massively expanding CO2-absorbing forests -– 99 percent of current carbon removal -– could claim land needed to grow food and biofuels, while it remains highly uncertain whether new technologies for sucking CO2 from the atmosphere can be scaled quickly enough, they warned in a major report.
Looking at varying emissions-reduction scenarios, between seven and nine billion tonnes of CO2 must be captured from the atmosphere by 2050, according to the second edition of the University of Oxford's report on the subject.
The first edition of The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal had reported that two billion tonnes were being removed mainly through reforestation, compared with the 40 billion tonnes emitted worldwide in 2023.
"Alongside rapidly reducing emissions", which remains the "most important mitigation strategy", eliminating CO2 from the atmosphere "is also necessary" to achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement, more than 50 researchers said.