United States – U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm announced DOE’s new target of removing gigatonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and storing it at less than $100 per ton of net CO2-equivalent.
The “Carbon Negative Shot,” the third target in DOE’s Energy Earthshots Initiative, is the United States government’s first major effort in carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and is an all-hands-on-deck call for innovation in the expanding field of CDR—a critical component of the plan to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
CDR is characterized as a broad range of techniques that absorb CO2 directly from the atmosphere and store it in geological, biobased, and ocean reservoirs, or in value-added products, resulting in negative emissions. Almost all net-zero climate and energy models show the necessity for a near-term concentration on CDR development and deployment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
CDR will need to be deployed on a gigaton scale by the mid-century. To put this in context, one gigatonne of underground CO2 sequestered is equal to the annual emissions from the US light-duty vehicle fleet—roughly 250 million vehicles driven in a year.
To establish a cost-effective and economically viable solution that can be deployed at scale and in time to meet the urgent needs of the climate crisis, major expenditures in research and development are still required.
The United States will expedite CDR innovation and position itself as a leader in research, manufacture, and demonstration through Carbon Negative Shot. It will also develop customized place-based ways to satisfy the requirements of different communities that may participate in or be impacted by CDR. DOE will endeavor to engage constructively with these communities as well as a diverse range of stakeholders, including environmental and climate justice organizations, tribal nations, labor groups, industry, and academics. Carbon Negative Shot also advocates for a whole-of-government approach and promotes coordination at the federal, state, and municipal levels.
Four performance elements will define the technologies DOE will advance through Carbon Negative Shot:
- A reduced cost of CDR of less than $100/net metric ton CO2 equivalent for both capture and storage;
- A robust accounting of lifecycle emissions (i.e., ensures emissions created when running and building the removal technology are accounted for);
- High-quality, durable storage with costs demonstrated for monitoring, reporting and verification for at least 100 years; and
- Enables necessary gigaton-scale removal.
These performance elements will guide the creation and growth of a responsible CDR industry that can address the climate crisis at a scale needed to meet our net-zero goals.
