The technologies offer the most realistic way to mitigate the final slice of emissions expected to remain by the 2040s from sources that don’t currently have a decarbonisation solution, such as aviation and agriculture.
Considering the scales needed, these technologies would represent a whole new infrastructure sector that could reach revenues matching that of the UK’s water sector by 2050.
The carbon removal technologies most commonly used are the direct extraction of carbon dioxide from the air as well as using bioenergy with carbon capture technology to recapture carbon dioxide absorbed as the fuel grows. In both cases the captured carbon dioxide is then stored permanently out of the atmosphere, typically under the seabed.
While various carbon capture projects have been implemented in the UK, they can be expensive to maintain. In 2015, Drax Power Plant in Yorkshire was forced to pull out of an early test of the technology after the government cut...