Climate change is no longer a distant threat – it is unfolding now, reshaping ecosystems, economies, and everyday life around the world. While governments debate net-zero pledges for 2050, the Earth system is already responding to the pressures of our unsustainable activities, particularly the pursuit of infinite socioeconomic growth. From melting glaciers to shrinking forests and bleaching coral reefs, the symptoms of planetary distress are becoming more frequent, more visible, and more difficult to ignore. What is clear is that Earth does not respond to political calendars or agendas but to physical forces, such as rising greenhouse gas concentrations and self-reinforcing feedback loops, that are rapidly pushing the planet beyond the boundaries of stable functioning.
Scientists refer to these boundaries as climate tipping points, thresholds beyond which natural systems shift rapidly and irreversibly. The melting of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets and the potential collapse of the Amazon rainforest into dry savannah are no longer distant scenarios. Recent studies suggest that some tipping points may be closer than previously thought, with signs of destabilization already underway. Despite this, many climate strategies still rely on slow, incremental reductions in carbon emissions, with the assumption that there is time to act before irreversible environmental changes take hold.
Meanwhile, the scientific message is clear and tells a different story. To avoid crossing critical tipping points, we must do more than reduce future emissions – we must also remove the excess anthropogenic carbon dioxide already emitted and accumulated in the atmosphere. Even if all emissions stopped today, the legacy of past CO₂ would continue to heat the planet for centuries. This is where Carbon Dioxide Removal, CDR, becomes essential, not as a replacement for mitigation, but as a necessary addition to it.
CDR encompasses a range of technologies and practices designed to extract CO₂ directly from the atmosphere and store it permanently and securely for hundreds to millions of years, whether underground, in the ocean, or within ecosystems. Its purpose is to help reverse some of the damage already caused by fossil fuel emissions, not to justify delayed action.
Delaying the deployment of Carbon Dioxide Removal solutions will only increase the scale, cost, and risks of the effort required in the future. To limit global warming to 1.5°C or 2°C, the world will likely need to remove between 5 and 16 gigatons of CO₂ per year by 2050, depending on how quickly emissions are reduced and whether key tipping points are avoided. A wide range of both technological and nature-based approaches will be necessary to meet this goal – deployed not only in the Global North but especially across the Global South and tropical regions, which hold key natural and socioeconomic advantages for scalable, equitable climate solutions.
Among the technological approaches, Direct Air Capture, DAC, uses machines with chemical filters to remove CO₂ directly from the atmosphere, which is then stored underground. Companies like Climeworks in Iceland operate commercial DAC plants powered by geothermal energy; Carbon Engineering in Canada is partnering with 1PointFive in the United States to build large-scale DAC hubs. Although energy-intensive and still costly, DAC offers precise and permanent carbon removal with a global potential estimated at 0.5 to 5 gigatons per year by 2050.
Biochar transforms agricultural and urban waste such as crop residues, forestry by-products, or food scraps into a stable, charcoal-like material through pyrolysis, a process that heats organic matter in a low-oxygen environment. This locks carbon into a solid form that, when added to soil, improves fertility and water retention while storing carbon for centuries. Companies like Charm Industrial in the United States are scaling mobile biochar units; NetZero and Carbo Culture are expanding operations in tropical Africa and South America, regions with high biomass availability and degraded soils that benefit greatly from biochar application. Already commercially viable in many contexts, biochar could remove between 0.3 and 2 gigatons annually by mid-century.
Enhanced Rock Weathering, ERW, accelerates the natural chemical process by which silicate or carbonate rocks react with atmospheric CO₂ to form stable bicarbonates. This is typically achieved by grinding rocks such as basalt and spreading them on croplands. UNDO in the United Kingdom, Lithos in the United States, and InPlanet in Brazil are currently piloting and scaling ERW projects, including in tropical regions where warm temperatures and high rainfall increase weathering rates. With a potential of 2 to 4 gigatons per year by 2050, ERW also offers co-benefits for soil health and crop yields, particularly in the nutrient-depleted soils of the Global South.
Wastewater-based CDR is an emerging approach that taps into urban and industrial wastewater systems to capture carbon through microbial processes, microalgae cultivation, or electrochemical reactions. Ebb Carbon in the United States integrates carbon removal into coastal wastewater treatment via alkalinity enhancement. In India and Southeast Asia, decentralized anaerobic digesters with carbon capture are being tested to treat waste and reduce emissions simultaneously. These systems offer the dual benefit of removing between 0.5 and 1.3 gigatons per year while improving public health and resource recovery in rapidly urbanizing tropical cities.
The Global South and tropical regions offer unique opportunities for high-impact deployment.
The ocean also holds vast potential through marine Carbon Dioxide Removal approaches. Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement involves adding alkaline minerals such as lime or olivine to seawater to increase its CO₂ uptake. Planetary Technologies in Canada and the United Kingdom and Vesta in the United States are actively conducting field trials in coastal zones, including plans in the Caribbean and West Africa. Biomass sinking, or ocean biomass dumping, involves cultivating fast-growing macroalgae such as sargassum and sinking them into the deep ocean, where decomposition is slow and carbon can remain sequestered for centuries. This technique is being explored by companies like Running Tide and academic partnerships in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Other emerging marine methods include artificial upwelling, electrochemical ocean carbon removal, and nutrient fertilization. Collectively, marine CDR strategies could contribute between 3 and 11 gigatons per year by 2050 if deployed responsibly and governed effectively.
Nature-based solutions remain indispensable. Reforestation and afforestation, which involve planting new forests and restoring degraded ones, can absorb between 1 and 10 gigatons annually. Successful large-scale examples include Green Ethiopia and Africa GreenTec; the Trillion Trees Initiative spans projects in tropical Latin America and Southeast Asia. Soil carbon sequestration through regenerative agriculture is being adopted by smallholder networks in Kenya via Soil Carbon International, as well as in India and Brazil. These methods can store between 2 and 5 gigatons per year while increasing food security and resilience to climate stress. Wetland and peatland restoration projects, such as Indonesia’s National Peatland Restoration Agency and Colombia’s Orinoquía Wetlands program, can avoid emissions and enhance long-term storage, with a potential of up to 1 gigaton annually.
Each of these methods comes with strengths and trade-offs. Technological solutions such as DAC, ERW, biochar, and wastewater-based or marine CDR offer high durability and traceability but often require substantial energy, infrastructure, and financing. Nature-based approaches are generally more cost-effective and offer vital co-benefits such as biodiversity protection, water retention, and local job creation, but are vulnerable to land pressures, drought, and fire. Critically, the Global South and tropical regions offer unique opportunities for high-impact deployment of both types of solutions, thanks to faster biomass growth, rich biodiversity, vast land availability, and strong potential for local socioeconomic benefits if CDR projects are implemented justly.
Ultimately, deploying durable and secure CDR methods is essential for achieving the scale of carbon removal required to meet global climate goals. Technologies that offer long-term carbon storage such as enhanced weathering, biochar, direct air capture, and marine-based approaches, provide a critical backbone for permanent CO₂ removal. However, their widespread use must go hand in hand with rigorous environmental assessment and careful consideration of social and economic impacts. As we scale these solutions, particularly across tropical and vulnerable regions, it is crucial to ensure they are not only effective and measurable but also equitable, sustainable, and aligned with broader goals of environmental protection, public participation, and community well-being.
The urgency of a global deployment of CDR is clear. Our inaction has resulted in atmospheric CO₂ levels now exceeding 430 parts per million, a concentration not seen in over 3 million years. Although we often perceive climate change as gradual, many of its impacts can accelerate abruptly. As warming continues, feedback loops intensify; melting ice reveals dark water that absorbs more heat; thawing permafrost releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas. This feedback can trigger tipping points, which may in turn destabilize other systems, creating a dangerous cascade of runaway change. Once these thresholds are crossed, they are extremely difficult, if not impossible, to reverse. This is why time is critical. Postponing the deployment of CDR risks locking the planet into more dangerous trajectories, requiring far more aggressive and costly interventions later. If climate action is to match the pace of climate science, then CDR must be treated as essential infrastructure for a stable, livable future.
Experts agree that there is no single CDR solution capable of tackling the entirety of the climate crisis. It is not a silver bullet, nor is it a substitute for reducing emissions. It is a critical piece of a broader climate response. A successful climate strategy requires a diversified portfolio of CDR methods, combining both natural and engineered systems, tailored to local needs.
Achieving this at scale means investing in research, building infrastructure, and creating policy frameworks that allow these technologies and practices to expand rapidly and responsibly. Around the world, momentum is growing. On the private side, initiatives such as the XPRIZE Carbon Removal, funded by Elon Musk and the Musk Foundation with a 100-million-dollar prize, are spurring innovation by supporting scalable and verifiable CDR solutions from startups and academic teams. The Frontier Fund, a one-billion-dollar advance market commitment led by Stripe, Alphabet, Shopify, Meta, and McKinsey, is purchasing high-quality CDR credits to create long-term demand and stimulate market formation.
Regionally, the European Union is leading the way with the development of its Carbon Removal Certification Framework, which aims to standardize monitoring and verification of CDR and integrate it into broader climate policy, including the EU Green Deal and carbon market mechanisms. In Latin America, Brazil is crafting a national CDR policy that recognizes its unique natural assets and scientific expertise, aiming to scale carbon removal in forests, agriculture, and ocean systems while aligning with its net-zero targets and biodiversity goals.
Public research and development are also accelerating. The United States Department of Energy has launched its Carbon Negative Shot as part of the Energy Earthshots Initiative, with a goal to reduce the cost of durable CDR to less than 100 dollars per ton. Globally, initiatives such as the Mission Innovation CDR Mission, supported by countries including the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Canada, and Australia, are fostering collaborative international research and development. Multilateral banks and climate funds are increasingly involved. The World Bank, the Green Climate Fund, and the Global Environment Facility are beginning to explore CDR-related investments in developing countries, where significant potential overlaps exist with needs for sustainable development, adaptation, and job creation.
Achieving equitable and sustainable deployment also requires coordinated governance. There is a growing international consensus on the need for a dedicated global body or governance framework to oversee CDR standards, equity, transparency, and environmental safeguards, supported by science and inclusive participation. Initiatives such as The Climate Action for Sustainable Development and Equity, CASCADE, are exploring pathways for just transitions and effective regulation of carbon removal in the Global South. At the same time, expert institutions such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and advocacy platforms like the Carbon Gap initiative are informing ethical frameworks, lifecycle accounting, and long-term monitoring systems to guide responsible implementation.
However, these advancements unfold in a time of profound geopolitical upheaval. The current global order is marked by increasing economic fragmentation, regional conflicts, and declining trust in multilateral processes. Major high-emitting governments, particularly the United States, have demonstrated policy reversals that include weakening environmental regulations, expanding fossil fuel subsidies, and reducing support for international climate finance. These actions not only stall progress but also erode the moral and political leadership required to mobilize global cooperation. The credibility of wealthier nations is increasingly questioned by countries in the Global South, especially as climate impacts intensify and historical responsibilities remain unaddressed. In this context, scaling carbon removal will depend not only on technological innovation and capital investment, but also on a renewed commitment to fairness, inclusion, and trust-building.
The future will be shaped not only by how much carbon we eliminate or remove, but also by how well we prepare for the consequences already unfolding.
Financing will be critical. CDR must be integrated into national and international climate finance systems through a mix of public funding, private investment, philanthropic support, and carbon market revenues. Particular attention must be given to ensuring accessibility for actors in the Global South, where many of the most effective and affordable CDR opportunities are located. These include tropical reforestation, enhanced weathering on highly weatherable soils, and decentralized biochar production using agricultural residues. If these solutions are implemented with environmental integrity and community participation, they can simultaneously advance mitigation, adaptation, and local development. With thoughtful coordination, CDR can evolve from a speculative tool into a globally inclusive and scientifically credible pillar of climate action.
Equally essential is the role of education and research in enabling the scalability, accountability, and equity of CDR solutions. Universities, technical institutes, and research centers must lead in developing new materials, refining measurement and verification methods, and assessing environmental and social impacts. Educational programs that foster systems thinking, complex problem-solving, ethical reasoning, and entrepreneurial mindsets are crucial for preparing the next generation of climate leaders. Challenge-based learning models, hands-on labs, and interdisciplinary curricula can help translate science into scalable, place-based solutions. Without a robust foundation of research and a well-prepared workforce, even the most promising CDR technologies will fall short of their potential.
It is important to mention that even with the most ambitious efforts to reduce emissions and scale up carbon removal, these actions alone will not be sufficient to fully shield humanity from the impacts of a rapidly changing climate. The world is already experiencing irreversible environmental shifts, and these will continue to intensify in the coming decades. Therefore, adaptation must be treated with equal urgency. From redesigning infrastructure to withstand extreme weather to rethinking food systems, water governance, and urban planning, adaptation is critical to protect the most vulnerable communities and ecosystems. Integrating adaptation into national development strategies and climate finance mechanisms is not optional – it is essential for resilience, equity, and long-term sustainability. A truly effective climate response must recognize that the future will be shaped not only by how much carbon we eliminate or remove, but also by how well we prepare for the consequences already unfolding.
Carbon Dioxide Removal is not a futuristic idea, it is a solution we already have and must now scale to meet the urgency of the moment. Acting now – today – offers the best chance of preserving a climate that supports both people and nature. Waiting puts that possibility at risk. The time to remove carbon is not 2050, it is 2025. Every year of delay increases the likelihood of deeper instability, including more frequent droughts, floods, food insecurity, and economic disruption. However, every ton of carbon we remove today brings us closer to a safer, more resilient, and more equitable future. We have the science, the tools, and the talent. What we need now is the courage, coordination, and investment to act. Removing carbon is no longer only a climate strategy, it is a generational responsibility.
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