The tricky plan to pull CO2 out of the air

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Will carbon dioxide removal work? It has to. Subscribe and turn on notifications 🔔 so you don't miss any videos: http://goo.gl/0bsAjO In recent years, over 70 countries have committed to net-zero carbon emissions, aiming to become carbon neutral by mid-century. The 2015 Paris Agreement aimed to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius and ideally limit it to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. Despite global efforts, emissions are still rising, and achieving the 1.5-degree goal has become increasingly difficult. Most pathways to keep warming below 2 degrees, and eventually return back to 1.5 rely on negative emissions, which involve pulling carbon dioxide from the atmosphere using carbon dioxide removal (CDR) methods like enhanced weathering and direct air capture. However, these techniques are still in early development stages, and require land, energy, and money. Critics argue that relying on CDR implicitly encourages governments and companies to postpone necessary emissions reductions because counting on CDR now means relying on future generations of leaders to deliver on those promises. Preventing emissions is broadly less costly than cleaning them up after the fact. But even with dramatic cuts to emissions, experts say some amount of CDR will still be necessary. Sources and further reading: https://cdrprimer.org https://www.stateofcdr.org/ https://www.carbonbrief.org/explainer-will-global-warming-stop-as-soon-as-net-zero-emissions-are-reached/ https://carbonplan.org/research/cdr-verification-explainer https://carbonplan.org/research https://www.eenews.net/articles/competition-heats-up-for-u-s-direct-air-capture-program/ https://skepticalscience.com/SkS_Analogy_10_Budgets_and_Bathtubs_2022.html https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-environ-112320-105050 https://insideclimatenews.org/news/04122022/carbon-removal-fossil-fuels-wyoming/ https://www.climatewatchdata.org/net-zero-tracker https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-which-countries-are-historically-responsible-for-climate-change/ https://www.carbonremovalalliance.org/ https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cumulative-co2-emissions-region https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/annual-co2-emissions-per-country https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-what-the-new-ipcc-report-says-about-when-world-may-pass-1-5c-and-2c/ https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/US_accessibleLTS2021.pdf https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/solar-pv-prices-vs-cumulative-capacity?yScale=linear https://newrepublic.com/article/166067/public-carbon-capture-climate Make sure you never miss behind the scenes content in the Vox Video newsletter, sign up here: http://vox.com/video-newsletter Vox is an explanatory newsroom on a mission to help everyone understand our weird, wonderful, complicated world, so that we can all help shape it. Part of that mission is keeping our work free. You can help us do that by making a gift: http://www.vox.com/contribute-now Watch our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/IZONyE Follow Vox on TikTok: http://tiktok.com/@voxdotcom Check out our articles: https://www.vox.com/ Listen to our podcasts: https://www.vox.com/podcasts Shop the Vox merch store: http://vox.com/store Watch our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/IZONyE Follow Vox on Facebook: http://facebook.com/vox Follow Vox on Twitter: http://twitter.com/voxdotcom Follow Vox on TikTok: http://tiktok.com/@voxdotcom