The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal project published its third edition, finding that national pledges for carbon dioxide removal fall short of 1.5°C-aligned pathways by 5.2 GtCO₂ a year by 2050. Present-day removal is almost entirely conventional and land-based, at 2.2 GtCO₂ per year. Novel methods – biochar and BECCS chief among them – together remove only around 2 MtCO₂ per year, with a project pipeline reaching just 8.4 MtCO₂ by 2030.
RMRI notes that two shortfalls compound here. That pipeline is already only about a tenth of what 1.5°C pathways require by 2030, and on recent form only around a fifth of planned capacity is actually built. A credible plan has to close not just the gap between pledges and pathways, but the wider gap between what is planned and what gets delivered.
Ref: The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal, stateofcdr.org