Methods

How carbon gets removed

Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) captures CO₂ from the atmosphere and stores it. Methods split into conventional land-based removal — today's mainstay — and novel engineered or accelerated methods that the scenarios scale up.

Today, and the gap

~2.2Gt CO₂/yr removed today

99.95%of it conventional (land-based)

5.2Gt CO₂/yr — the 2050 CDR gap

The CDR gap is the shortfall between national pledges and the Highest-Ambition 1.5 °C scenario: ~0.3 Gt CO₂/yr in 2030 widening to ~5.2 in 2050 (State of CDR Ed.3, Ch.9). Almost all removal today is conventional; the scenarios grow the novel share sharply.

Method catalogue

Cost vs potential

Indicative cost vs sustainable potential

SoCDR Ch.10

Conventional Novel

Points are indicative central values (potential midpoint; cost geometric mean) from State of CDR Ed.3, Ch.10; hover for the full published range. Cost axis is logarithmic and shows positive values only — soil carbon can be net-negative (see its card). DACCS extends to ~$2,500/tCO₂ today.

Ocean and wetland methods. Ocean alkalinity enhancement, other ocean methods, and blue-carbon wetland restoration have large but deeply uncertain potential and are thinly covered here. They are largely absent from the WITCH land/BECCS/DACCS-focused runs NEEDS SOURCE.