How is KR 6.2 Tracking?
Engineered carbon removal consists of ways to create machines and processes that draw carbon from the atmosphere.
These engineered solutions face significant resource constraints. By 2050, capturing and storing 5 gigatons per year would soak up close to 7 percent of the world’s total energy—more than the combined consumption of the UK, France, Mexico, and Brazil.
To store that much carbon underground would be the equivalent of running the entire oil industry in reverse. We’d need to trap carbon in liquid form at the same massive scale and pump it all back into the ground. If carbon removal technologies are to address the need, they must become far more efficient.
Most solutions are just getting off the ground. While direct air capture holds promise, the technology has so far sequestered a cumulative 2,500 tons of carbon worldwide—a tiny fraction of 1 percent of a single gigaton.
Data for KR 6.2 is sourced from BloombergNEF, which publishes its market outlook on carbon removal annually.
