Should asset owners and policy makers prioritize investments in infrastructure that reduce emissions (i.e., what goes into the atmosphere) vs. that remove carbon (remove what is in the atmosphere) to accelerate our progress towards net zero goals?
An Oxford study concludes that technologies and projects that cut emissions should be prioritized over those that remove emissions, such as those involving direct air capture/biochar/BECCS. Carbon removal technologies today face an uncertain path in scaling up, are expensive and time is running out due to the limited carbon budget through 2050. A lot of investment is going into carbon removal technologies.
“Industries that can more easily cut emissions should maximize that effort, leaving more of the world’s limited capacity to remove carbon from the atmosphere for those that, because of their very nature, are limited in their ability to do so. Companies in so-called “hard to abate” sectors like steelmakers and airlines might have greater need for such removals”