Every year, humans release almost 40 billion tonnes of planet-warming CO2 into the atmosphere. But some companies are finding productive ways to use that waste...
Carbon dioxide has made up a quarter of all the waste humans have created since 1900. In a 2015 paper, Austrian researchers estimated that 2,470 gigatonnes of material extracted from mines, oil wells, forests and farms had been dumped back in the environment after processing and use. Besides the carbon emissions, 35% ended up as solid waste, 20% as water vapour and the rest as an assortment of human and animal excrement plus other gases.
Much of this waste damages the planet. But the CO2 is particularly worrying, given its contribution to the greenhouse effect. An obvious solution to this problem would be to pull the gas out of the atmosphere, and scientists have proved that carbon capture and storage (CCS) is certainly possible.
But who’s going to pay for this clean-up? At present, the best mechanism to force polluters to deal...