Thread by @GlobalEcoGuy

This might help put the conversation around carbon capture in perspective.

In their new study of direct air capture, the IEA proposes a "large and accelerated" scale-up from today's ~0.01 Mt-CO2 / yr rate of capture to ~980 MT-CO2 / yr in 2050.

iea.org/reports/direct…

To put this in perspective, the current rate (~0.01 Mt-CO2/yr) of DAC is about 0.000017% of our current greenhouse gas emissions.

Or, put another way, it absorbs about 5-6 *seconds* of the greenhouse gas emissions we put out every year.

And if we manage to scale this up to the ambitious figure of 980 Mt-CO2/yr by the year 2050 -- which is not at all guaranteed -- it would remove about 1.6% of our current greenhouse gas emissions.

Or, only about 6 *days* of our current annual emissions.

Even if this were to happen, it would be within the error bars of our being able to even measure it in the atmosphere.

There are other ways to remove carbon from the atmosphere, of course. Nature-based solutions (in trees, soils, and oceans) can be used too, but they have other limitations.

Bottom line: don't expect a huge amount of DAC happening anytime soon.