{"id":206635,"date":"2025-12-29T11:58:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T11:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/206635\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T11:58:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T11:58:09","slug":"heres-the-exact-amount-of-co%e2%82%82-we-need-to-remove-to-avoid-climate-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/206635\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s the exact amount of CO\u2082 we need to remove to avoid climate disaster"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cutting carbon dioxide emissions to slow global warming has become an undeniable necessity \u2014 but it\u2019s not the only action we need to take. On the first day of the COP30 climate summit, a leading Swedish scientist shared precise data on how much CO2 must be extracted from the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

We have no other choice: it\u2019s not enough to simply reduce CO2 emissions<\/a> \u2014 we also have to remove the excess already lingering in the air. Johan Rockstr\u00f6m, one of the world\u2019s top scientists in atmospheric science and hydrology, also serves as an adviser to the United Nations and to COP30\u2019s presidency. Based on his calculations, humanity would need to remove a staggering 10 billion tons of CO2 from the air every year to have a chance of limiting global warming to +1.7\u00b0C compared with pre-industrial levels. In any case, the limit set by the 2015 Paris Agreement, +1.5\u00b0C, will inevitably be exceeded.<\/p>\n

But according to Rockstr\u00f6m, it\u2019s theoretically possible not to surpass +1.7\u00b0C if humanity succeeds in removing that enormous quantity of CO2 from the atmosphere. How? It would require building an entirely new industrial sector \u2014 carbon capture. Some experiments have already been carried out, though most projects remain confidential.<\/p>\n

Why aren\u2019t we moving faster to develop and implement this technology? Because capturing carbon on a massive scale is extremely expensive, and the investment still isn\u2019t profitable. According to The Guardian, it could cost trillions of dollars. Yet the economic challenge isn\u2019t the only concern: once the carbon is captured, it has to be stored underground, which could have harmful environmental side effects.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Technological CO2 sequestration in the soil is extremely expensive. \u00a9 malp, Adobe Stock<\/p>\n

There are technological and natural ways to remove excess carbon<\/p>\n

So, are we really stuck? Alongside reducing annual CO2 emissions, there\u2019s an effective and far cheaper way to store excess carbon: protecting and expanding forests<\/a>. This approach costs an average of $50 for each ton of CO2 removed \u2014 a fraction of the $200 per ton required by industrial methods. How societies choose to remove this excess CO2 was one of the central topics discussed at the most recent COP conference.<\/p>\n

\"karine-durand\"<\/p>\n

Karine Durand<\/p>\n

Specialist for extreme weather and environment<\/p>\n

A specialist in extreme weather phenomena and environmental issues, this journalist and TV host has been explaining climate topics since 2009. With over 15 years of experience in both French and American media, she is also an international speaker.<\/p>\n

Trained in communication and environmental sciences, primarily in the United States, she shares her passion for vast natural landscapes and the impacts of climate change through her work on biodiversity and land management.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cutting carbon dioxide emissions to slow global warming has become an undeniable necessity \u2014 but it\u2019s not the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-206635","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}