Dias et al. (2025): Removing atmospheric CO2 through mass scaleup of crops with enhanced root systems
Daniela Faggiani Dias, Ryan Hanna, Jeffrey Sachnik, Yangyang Xu, Jack Gilbert, Wolfgang Busch, David G Victor IN: Environmental Research Letters, DOI 10.1088/1748-9326/adc31b
The authors develop a new integrated modeling approach for assessing scalability that combines insights from the history of analogous technological revolutions with information about the efficacy and specific constraints of CDR strategies. They illustrate the approach with genetically enhanced crops that grow larger roots and, in turn, increase soil carbon. Unlike many CDR technologies whose deployment will be slowed by the need for novel and costly infrastructures, history suggests that crop innovations can scale rapidly in countries that admit them.