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5 Ways the US Government Can Kickstart a CarbonShot to Remove Carbon from the Atmosphere | |
admin | |
2020-01-31 | |
发布年 | 2020 |
语种 | 英语 |
国家 | 美国 |
领域 | 气候变化 ; 资源环境 |
正文(英文) | To prevent the most dangerous impacts of climate change, the science shows that global greenhouse gas emissions will have to reach net zero by the middle of this century. That will require both deep cuts in emissions and the removal of remaining emissions directly from the atmosphere. Realizing the untapped global potential of natural carbon removal in forests and agricultural soils and hastening development of promising carbon-removal technologies will require considerable public investment. The United States is well-placed to lead on carbon removal. A WRI paper published today offers a policy roadmap for the U.S. government to kickstart carbon removal over the next decade, setting a course to stabilize the climate and spur the kind of innovation the United States was built on. The United States is no stranger to this kind of challenge. At the start of World War II, the federal government partnered with industry and academia to produce a substitute for natural rubber; five years later, the U.S. was producing tens of thousands of tons of synthetic rubber. In 1961, a manned lunar mission seemed out of reach, but years of concerted effort made this moonshot happen. In 2011, the Department of Energy launched a SunShot Initiative to reduce the cost of solar power by 75 percent by 2020 — and hit that target three years early. Now we need a major new federal initiative to scale up carbon removal—a CarbonShot. The US Should Be Prepared to Remove Billions of Tons of Carbon by 2050Even ambitious mitigation plans fall short of eliminating emissions by 2050. The 2016 U.S. Mid-Century Strategy for Deep Decarbonization left roughly 2.55 billion tons of gross annual emissions remaining in its 2050 benchmark scenario. U.S. forests currently offset emissions by sequestering more than 700 million tons of carbon dioxide each year, but that rate is projected to decline in the next few decades as forests age and forest disturbance increases. Thus, even if the United States successfully executes this strategy, roughly 2 billion tons of additional carbon dioxide would need to be removed from the atmosphere each year to bring net emissions to zero. The actual need will depend on the pace and extent of emissions reduction efforts in practice. The 2-billion-ton benchmark may be best viewed as a starting point for U.S. investment rather than an endpoint. Combined Natural-Technological PortfolioNatural carbon removal, such as forest restoration, is shovel-ready and can provide significant cumulative carbon removal through 2050. However, technologies like direct air capture will also be needed to achieve the 2 billion tons benchmark. A combined natural-technological portfolio also reduces cost and risk. If any single pathway fails to realize its potential, another may be able to fill the gap. How Congress Can Kickstart a CarbonShot InitiativeHere are the top five federal policy investments Congress can make now to put the U.S. on a path to removing billions of tons of carbon by 2050:
While midcentury is still three decades away, scaling carbon removal to a meaningful level requires starting today. In the tradition of past grand challenges, the U.S. should now launch a CarbonShot: a new decade of innovation and opportunity by investing in climate solutions like carbon removal. Editor's note: Updated to state how much tree restoration is required to remove 360 million tons of carbon dioxide per year. Added information about the carbon removal potential of full tree restoration. |
URL | 查看原文 |
来源平台 | World Resources Institute |
文献类型 | 新闻 |
条目标识符 | http://119.78.100.173/C666/handle/2XK7JSWQ/228342 |
专题 | 资源环境科学 气候变化 |
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714 | admin. 5 Ways the US Government Can Kickstart a CarbonShot to Remove Carbon from the Atmosphere. 2020. |
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