Carbon Capture Coalition Statement on the Role of Engineered Solutions to Reduce Atmospheric Concentrations of Carbon Dioxide and Help Meet Climate Targets

On May 25, the Carbon Capture Coalition submitted a letter to the Article 6.4 Supervisory Body (SB005) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, requesting they revisit its mischaracterization of engineering-based solutions as “technologically and economically unproven” in their document A6.4-SB005-AA-A09.  This document will inform how the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change implements the Article 6.4 mechanism, which calls for establishing an international carbon trading program.

The following statement may be attributed to Jessie Stolark, the Executive Director of the Carbon Capture Coalition:

“The Carbon Capture Coalition recognizes that while a full suite of emissions reduction and carbon dioxide removal strategies must be deployed to meet the Paris Agreement, scaling available engineered carbon dioxide removal (CDR) methods is increasingly recognized as a central component to both offsetting emissions in those sectors with challenging-to-abate emissions, such as shipping and aviation, and post-2050, reducing the concentration of CO₂ remaining in the atmosphere.

“Increasingly, CDR and in particular, direct air capture (DAC) is recognized as an important and commercially available pathway to help meet the Paris Agreement.  DAC is one type of engineered CDR that offers permanent removal of CO₂ from the atmosphere when paired with geologic storage; alternatively, captured CO₂ can also be reused to produce essential fuels, chemicals, and products and offset emissions from these emissions intensive sectors.

“In addition to promising commercial developments, including the recent groundbreaking for Stratos, what will be the world’s largest DAC facility, the United States is providing the most forward-looking policy supports for the large-scale deployment of DAC. This includes but is not limited to the U.S. Department of Energy’s DAC Hub program, as well as increased support for DAC in the recent enhancements to the 45Q tax credit.

“Indeed, without DAC and other promising CDR technologies, it is extremely unlikely that we meet net-zero emissions and midcentury climate targets.  For these reasons, the Carbon Capture Coalition requests that the Article 6.4 Supervisory Body revisit it’s mischaracterization of the role and commercial readiness of DAC and other engineered carbon removal solutions.”

###

Convened by the Great Plains Institute, the Carbon Capture Coalition is a nonpartisan collaboration of more than 100 companies, unions, conservation and environmental policy organizations, building federal policy support to enable economywide, commercial scale deployment of carbon management technologies. This includes carbon capture, removal, transport, utilization, and storage from industrial facilities, power plants, and ambient air.