"Scaling Technological Greenhouse Gas Removal: A Global Roadmap to 2050" sets ambitious goals for both carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and non-CO2 greenhouse gas removal.
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CDR: Reach 10 Gt CO2/y of durable technological removals by 2050.
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Non-CO2 GHGR: Advance the science of non-CO2 removal such that decisions can be made by the early 2030s about future development and deployment.
Accomplishing these goals will require buy-in, commitments, and execution from actors across the GHGR ecosystem, says the report. The roadmap is intended to be used as a tool for aligning actions and investments across sectors and stakeholders, including government actors at all levels, funders, GHGR communities, industry, researchers, journalists and media, and nonprofits and civil society organisations.
The core content of the roadmap includes three interweaving sections to describe what is needed. Section 6 provides an assessment of what is most needed across four thematic areas: (1) science and technology, (2) socio-behavioral and communities, (3) finance and markets, and (4) policy and regulation. Section 7 provides 51 technology-specific initiatives for advancing technological GHGR (e.g., rock CDR, ocean CDR, etc.). Section 8 unifies the preceding sections into a sequence of decadal activities for achieving GHGR goals in the years leading to 2050.
"The goals of the roadmap are ambitious, and they will subject the field to intense deployment and scaling challenges, said the authors, "but as the impacts of global warming become increasingly evident, they are what is needed to ensure that sufficient GHGR is available to serve its essential role in the portfolio of climate solutions. Humanity must come together swiftly to resource and execute one of the most pressing technological scale-ups in history. If GHGR stakeholders unite to drive the field forward in a deliberately coordinated way, then the goals of this roadmap are well within reach."