. 24/7 Space News .
CLIMATE SCIENCE
A climate in crisis calls for investment in direct air capture, new research finds
by Staff Writers
San Diego CA (SPX) Jan 21, 2021

file illustration only

There is a growing consensus among scientists as well as national and local governments representing hundreds of millions of people, that humanity faces a climate crisis that demands a crisis response. New research from the University of California San Diego explores one possible mode of response: a massively funded program to deploy direct air capture (DAC) systems that remove CO2 directly from the ambient air and sequester it safely underground.

The findings reveal such a program could reverse the rise in global temperature well before 2100, but only with immediate and sustained investments from governments and firms to scale up the new technology.

Despite the enormous undertaking explored in the study, the research also reveals the need for governments, at the same time, to adopt policies that would achieve deep cuts in CO2 emissions. The scale of the effort needed just to achieve the Paris Agreement goals of holding average global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius is massive.

The study, published in Nature Communications, assesses how crisis-level government funding on direct air capture - on par with government spending on wars or pandemics - would lead to deployment of a fleet of DAC plants that would collectively remove CO2 from the atmosphere.

"DAC is substantially more expensive than many conventional mitigation measures, but costs could fall as firms gain experience with the technology," said first-author Ryan Hanna, assistant research scientist at UC San Diego. "If that happens, politicians could turn to the technology in response to public pressure if conventional mitigation proves politically or economically difficult."

Co-author David G. Victor, professor of industrial innovation at UC San Diego's School of Global Policy and Strategy, added that atmospheric CO2 concentrations are such that meeting climate goals requires not just preventing new emissions through extensive decarbonization of the energy system, but also finding ways to remove historical emissions already in the atmosphere.

"Current pledges to cut global emissions put us on track for about 3 degrees C of warming," Victor said. "This reality calls for research and action around the politics of emergency response. In times of crisis, such as war or pandemics, many barriers to policy expenditure and implementation are eclipsed by the need to mobilize aggressively."

Emergency deployment of direct air capture
The study calculates the funding, net CO2 removal, and climate impacts of a large and sustained program to deploy direct air capture technology.

The authors find that if an emergency direct air capture program were to commence in 2025 and receive investment of 1.2-1.9% of global GDP annually it would remove 2.2-2.3 gigatons of CO2 by the year 2050 and 13-20 gigatons of CO2 by 2075. Cumulatively, the program would remove 570-840 gigatons of CO2 from 2025-2100, which falls within the range of CO2 removals that IPCC scenarios suggest will be needed to meet Paris targets.

Even with such a massive program, the globe would see temperature rise of 2.4-2.5+ C in the year 2100 without further cuts in global emissions below current trajectories.

Exploring the reality of a fleet of CO2 scrubbers in the sky
According to the authors, DAC has attributes that could prove attractive to policymakers if political pressures continue to mount to act on climate change, yet cutting emissions remains insurmountable.

"Policymakers might see value in the installation of a fleet of CO2 scrubbers: deployments would be highly controllable by the governments and firms that invest in them, their carbon removals are verifiable, and they do not threaten the economic competitiveness of existing industries," said Hanna.

From the Civil War to Operation Warp Speed, the authors estimate the financial resources that might be available for emergency deployment of direct air capture - in excess of one trillion dollars per year - based on previous spending the U.S. has made in times of crisis.

The authors then built a bottom-up deployment model that constructs, operates and retires successive vintages of DAC scrubbers, given available funds and the rates at which direct air capture technologies might improve with time. They link the technological and economic modeling to climate models that calculate the effects of these deployments on atmospheric CO2 concentration level and global mean surface temperature.

With massive financial resources committed to DAC, the study finds that the ability of the DAC industry to scale up is the main factor limiting CO2 removal from the atmosphere. The authors point to the ongoing pandemic as an analog: even though the FDA has authorized use of coronavirus vaccines, there is still a huge logistical challenge to scaling up production, transporting, and distributing the new therapies quickly and efficiently to vast segments of the public.

Conventional mitigation is still needed, even with wartime spending combating climate change
"Crisis deployment of direct air capture, even at the extreme of what is technically feasible, is not a substitute for conventional mitigation," the authors write.

Nevertheless, they note that the long-term vision for combating climate requires taking negative emissions seriously.

"For policymakers, one implication of this finding is the high value of near-term direct air capture deployments - even if societies today are not yet treating climate change as a crisis - because near term deployments enhance future scalability," they write. "Rather than avoiding direct air capture deployments because of high near-term costs, the right policy approach is the opposite."

Additionally, they note that such a large program would grow a new economic sector, producing a substantial number of new jobs.

The authors conclude it is time to extend research on direct air capture systems to real-world conditions and constraints that accompany deployment - especially in the context of acute political pressures that will arise as climate change becomes viewed as a crisis.

Research paper


Related Links
University Of California - San Diego
Climate Science News - Modeling, Mitigation Adaptation


Thanks for being there;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5+ Billed Monthly


paypal only
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal


CLIMATE SCIENCE
Spotty report card on climate for top asset managers
Paris (AFP) Jan 14, 2021
The world's top 30 fund managers, collectively holding $50 trillion in assets, get mixed marks on steering the global economy into alignment with Paris climate targets, according to a report released Thursday. The annual assessment from London-based think tank InfluenceMap graded investment giants across three criteria: support for climate-related shareholder resolutions, the greenness of portfolios, and engagement with the companies in those portfolios. "Given the huge influence these asset man ... read more

Comment using your Disqus, Facebook, Google or Twitter login.



Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle

CLIMATE SCIENCE
Prepping for a spacewalk to install Colka on ISS external hull

Cultivating plant growth in space

NASA Extends Exploration for Two Planetary Science Missions

European Gateway module to be built in France as Thomas Pesquet readies for second spaceflight

CLIMATE SCIENCE
Virgin Orbit targets Sunday for LauncherOne mission from California

Cargo Dragon undocks from Station and heads for splashdown

Exotrail aims for more in orbit space mobility

China makes progress in developing rocket engines for space missions

CLIMATE SCIENCE
Curiosity Rover reaches its 3,000th day on Mars

Frosty scenes in martian summer

Seven things to know about the NASA rover about to land on Mars

China Focus: 400 mln km within 163 days, China's Mars probe heads for red planet

CLIMATE SCIENCE
Chinese space enterprise gears up for record-breaking 40-plus launches in 2021

China's space achievements out of this world

China's Chang'e-5 orbiter embarks on new mission to gravitationally stable spot at L1

China plans to launch four manned spacecraft in next two years

CLIMATE SCIENCE
France to Invest $121.5Mln in Space Projects Over Next 2 Years, Macron Says

NASA, FAA Partnership Bolsters American Commercial Space Activities

Orbit Logic Leverages Blockchain for Constellation Communication over Dynamic Networks

Airbus signs multi-satellite contract with Intelsat for OneSat flexible satellites

CLIMATE SCIENCE
Saffire Ignites New Discoveries in Space

Physicists propose a new theory to explain one dimensional quantum liquids formation

Seeing in a flash

EOS supports Texas Rocket Engineering Laboratory (TREL) to fuel additive manufacturing education

CLIMATE SCIENCE
Astronomers finally measure polarized light from exoplanet

A rocky planet around one of our galaxy's oldest stars

Astronomers find evidence for planets shrinking over billions of years

Astronomers measure enormous planet lurking far from its star

CLIMATE SCIENCE
Juno mission expands into the future

Dark Storm on Neptune reverses direction, possibly shedding a fragment

The 'Great' Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn

NASA's Juno Spacecraft Updates Quarter-Century Jupiter Mystery









The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.