Exeter expert comments on CO2 removal report

Massive deployment of CDR is critical to reach net zero emissions and stabilise the climate as quickly as possible.

The report highlights that current CDRs which takes up two billion tonnes of CO₂ (GtCO₂) per year, are primarily due to conventional land management such as reforestation.

Novel technologies, such as direct air capture, are still negligible, and would need to scale up by several orders of magnitude to become significant.

Here Professor Pierre Friedlingstein, lead author of the Global Carbon Budget Report and Director of the Global Carbon Budget Office at the University of Exeter, comments on the report:

“CDR cannot solve the climate crisis alone. It is widely acknowledged that deep cuts in global CO₂ emissions are also urgently needed to limit global warming.

“Yet the latest figures from the Global Carbon Budget report published in November last year, show that total CO₂ emissions remain high at a projected 40.6 billion tonnes of CO₂ (GtCO₂) in 2022, with no sign of the rapid decrease needed.

“If current emissions levels persist, there is a 50% chance that warming of 1.5°C will be exceeded in just nine years.

We must change course. But as world leaders falter the world continues to heat up, the impacts of climate change are felt more severely, and the task becomes more challenging.”

The Global Carbon Budget 2022 was released in November 2022 at COP27 in Egypt. The published report and supporting data can be found here: Global Carbon Budget | Home