Global Warming

CO2 Removal

A new study finds that about 2.2 billion tons of CO2 are being removed from the atmosphere each year, and that most of it is from recently planted trees and better soil management. 

There are growing efforts through new technologies to extract the greenhouse gas directly from the atmosphere and put it in long-term storage on land, in the ocean, in geological formations or in products.

But researchers from the University of Oxford estimate that more than 1,300 times more carbon dioxide needs to be extracted from the air than is currently being captured to keep global heating below the 2 degrees Celsius goal by 2050 set out in the Paris Agreement. That reduction should also help the world reach net-zero emissions by then.