According to Bloomberg News, to keep catastrophic global warming at bay, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has given an assessment that says that as much as 100 billion tons to 1 trillion tons of carbon dioxide must be eliminated from the earth by human beings by the year 2100.
So, to attain the upper range of the limit, we must remove all of the carbon emitted during this century and some more. Presently, global carbon elimination stands at approximately 40 million tons, mainly from smokestacks. The purpose of those projects is to capture carbon and sequestration from the atmosphere and bury it in bales deep underground. It can help us reduce our emissions and create a cleaner environment. Now the amount of carbon has exceeded more than 8000 tons, which is at an expense of $600 per piece or more than the same. If the expense is at this rate, it only implies that there is not enough cash to reach the 1 trillion ton mark.
The silver lining news here is that the US government has plans to alter the mathematics involved in the venture. Towards the end of last year, the US Department of Energy declared what it is calling a “carbon negative shot“, which is a component of its Energy Earthshots Initiative. This is a commendable investment in those technologies that will eventually help remove billions of tons of carbon from the atmosphere every year at affordable prices and amount to $100 per ton.
The bipartisan infrastructure law that was passed during mid-November was seen funding $3.5 billion for this effort. Although, this amount of money is not adequate to cure the climate, yet this is the government’s first-ever serious effort and investment.
Bloomberg News reports that the officer entrusted with the responsibility of disbursing this amount of astronomical money is none other than Jennifer Wilcox, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, is a chemical engineer, and has authored a book on carbon capture. Wilcox is responsible for running the Energy Department’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, comprising a team of around 750 members that monitor and oversee the research projects related to decarbonization.
As per the Infrastructure law that was passed in November, Wilcox’s team was allocated $3.5 billion. Keeping in mind the urgency of the climate crisis two main projects are high on her priority list. The first is to find out and study the technologies that will help in carbon capture and store at least 1 million tons of carbon dioxide annually. The second is to develop a set of federal guidelines to ensure the removal of carbon and storage.
In case the government intends to credit a business entity or any business by entrusting with carbon storage, it requires some kind of assurance or guarantees about how long that business entity will store the carbon. The Energy Department has not given any specification related to the same but has said that it is working with the IRS to incorporate certain standards.
According to Bloomberg News, there are several ways by which carbon dioxide can be extracted from the air, like crop rotation, soil tiling, tree plantation, running air with bath chemicals meant for extraction, and many such procedures.
Wilcox has also said that at the moment, her office, aside from cultivating newer technologies for carbon removal, specific is also seeking projects that will help in convincing the communities that carbon removal is worth the time and effort right now.
