EU cities plan to compensate for a fifth of their emissions through carbon removal, but few have thought through how

An analysis of 103 European cities' climate-neutral plans for 2030 (including 22 capital cities) shows that municipalities are planning to rely on carbon removal to compensate for about a fifth of their emissions. This would mean removing roughly 61 million tonnes of emissions from the atmosphere—close to Austria's annual emissions.

The top 3

  1. Direct Air Capture (DAC): DAC technology uses chemical reactions to filter carbon dioxide directly from ambient air, which can then be permanently stored deep underground or utilized for other purposes.
  2. Bioenergy with Carbon Capture (BECCS): BECCS combines biomass energy production with carbon capture and storage, leveraging plants to absorb CO2 during growth and then capturing emissions from their combustion.
  3. Enhanced Weathering: Enhanced weathering accelerates natural rock breakdown by spreading finely ground silicate rock, which reacts with CO2 to permanently store it in solid carbonate minerals or ocean alkalinity.

Sources

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