Removal of carbon dioxide must be part of solution

Creating a global air conditioning system to fight global warming is a tall order.

But that’s essentially what United Nations climate experts are saying is needed, and San Diego officials at the local and federal level are trying to help build it.

The world we live in is in a world of hurt, with every new climate report shouting that temperature “tipping points” are fast approaching. Crossing those lines likely will forever alter the globe in ways that are detrimental and — depending on what nations do or don’t do — potentially catastrophic.

The repetitiveness of the dire warnings can numb the response because it almost seems too late to stave off disaster. Almost, but not quite.

The most recent U.N. report released in early April says there’s still time to avoid the most extreme dangers of climate change if nations dramatically and quickly cut greenhouse gas pollution — a familiar refrain. But that alone won’t do it. The report by the U.N.’S Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change emphasized that carbon dioxide already emitted must be removed from the atmosphere.

There are several strategies to do that. Planting massive new forests and no-till agriculture can increase the Earth’s ability to absorb and sequester carbon dioxide, while building machines that suck carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere can do that in a different way.

Enhancing the oceans’ ability to absorb carbon dioxide can be done by adding alkaline materials or certain nutrients.

Some of the options would take time to become effective, could be risky and may not be economically feasible, at least at the moment.

Skeptics are wary of carbon removal plans, saying they can be a means to offset continued emissions that instead need to be stopped.

But the U.N. climate panel and other experts say removal has to be part of the equation.

“Carbon dioxide removal is essential to achieve netzero (greenhouse gas emissions),” said Diana Ürgevorsatz, vice chair of the working group that produced the report.

Rep. Scott Peters is on board with that. The San Diego Democrat teamed up with Rep. Paul Tonko, DN.Y., to introduce the Federal Carbon Dioxide Removal Leadership Act following the release of the U.N. report. Peters’ release announcing the legislation noted carbon removal will be “required to counterbalance sectors whose emissions are difficult to mitigate, such as steel production and long-haul aviation.”

Efforts have been moving ahead to capture industrial carbon emissions at the release point and to develop lower-emission fuel for aircraft. Progress on both has been spotty.

In January, CBS News cited reports that found that two carbon-capture facilities in Canada were underperforming — one power plant was capturing just half the carbon it had advertised, while a facility that was supposed to be creating clean hydrogen was actually emitting the equivalent of 1.2 million cars annually.

The terms “carbon removal” and “carbon capture” are sometimes confused, but they are not synonymous.

Removal is taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere; capture takes CO2 at the source — smokestacks and other industrial facilities — and stores it.

Last year’s federal infrastructure law includes $12 billion for carbon removal and capture projects, according to National Public Radio. Lawmakers have been debating including even more funding in the stalled Build Back Better Act.

The Peters-tonko bill requires the Department of Energy to remove an increasing amount of carbon dioxide emissions each year through direct air capture and other means while giving the department flexibility to adapt emerging technologies to the task. The Congress members also emphasize job creation that would result from the efforts.

“Although these solutions are costly and still evolving, we need them to maintain a safe climate,” Peters said in a statement.

He added the bill will include incentives for cost reductions over time by creating a market for carbon dioxide.

According to a Vox news article, “CO2 is . . . a useful feedstock, (and) an input into a variety of Industrial processes. From plastic to concrete, CO2 is a basic industrial building block — a valuable commodity. To many climate campaigners, this suggests that maybe we should use more of it.”

The county of San Diego hasn’t been discussing big air vacuums. But the Board of Supervisors is exploring ways to use land throughout the region to capture carbon in plants and soil, while also sequestering carbon in marshes and wetlands, according to Deborah Sullivan Brennan of The San Diego Union-tribune.

A report by the San Diego Food System Alliance gives details on “carbon farming,” which includes composting, orchard preservation and restoring habitat along waterways to enhance retaining carbon.

Sullivan Brennan noted that other techniques include perennial plantings, cover cropping, reducing soil disruption caused by tilling fields and silvopasture, a system of integrating trees and livestock grazing to boost crop yield and improve soil conditions.

Besides helping capture carbon, those processes can reduce the amount of fertilizer needed, increase crop yield, expand habitat, and improve soil and water retention on farmlands, Elise Hanson, a management fellow at the San Diego County Land Use and Environment Group, told the supervisors.

“Agriculture is the only sector that can switch from being a net carbon-producing to carbon-sequestering sector,” Hanson said.

The U.N. report noted that heat-trapping emissions last year were at their highest level ever, following a decline during the coronavirus pandemic. The

Russian invasion of Ukraine has driven up oil prices, spurring calls for more oil and gas drilling at a time when climate experts say the world needs to wean itself off fossil fuels, fast.

The current trajectory has the world shooting past the temperature increase “tipping point” of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). The report says warming beyond that will result in increasingly dangerous heat waves, floods and storms that would affect millions of people.

Time is running out to turn things around, and big action is needed to corral emissions past, present and future.

As one climate scientist said, it’s now or never.

Tweet of the Week

Goes to Rapper Ice T (@FINALLEVEL), with a tip of the cap to Politico for flagging it.

“It would (be) kinda dope if Musk bought Twitter and just shut it off…. Lol”