Carbon Removal Is the UK's Next Industrial Frontier
The nation is well positioned to become a global leader, but only if decisive action is taken now.
Building for the future
Photographer: Anthony Devlin/BloombergReaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050, which the UK is legally bound to, will require a great deal of change — from how we heat our homes to where the industrial sector gets its energy from. But one of the biggest shifts will be the emergence of an entirely new industry: carbon dioxide removal (CDR).
CDR, also called greenhouse gas removal, refers to a group of methods that take CO2 out of the atmosphere and store it durably on Earth. Direct air capture, for example, extracts the CO2 from ambient air and stores it underground. Enhanced weathering, another technique, speeds up the natural process of rock weathering, in which CO2 reacts with rain and certain rocks to form carbonates.