Ampah et al. (2026): Ambitious Co-scaling of Carbon Dioxide Removal and Decarbonization Delivers Better Climate Outcomes Than Strategies That Prioritize Efforts in One Domain

Jeffrey Dankwa Ampah, Chao Jin, Haifeng Liu, Mingfa Yao, Sandylove Afrane, Xuan Zhang, Zhenlong Geng, Zhangming Ge, Humphrey Adun, Jay Fuhrman, Raphael Wentemi Apeaning, David Morrow, David T. Ho, Yang Ou and Haewon McJeon, IN: Environmental Science & Technology, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5c17017

Concerns about mitigation deterrence have prompted calls for pathways that avoid multigigatonne reliance on carbon dioxide removal (CDR), yet such pathways can also discourage near-term investment in CDR, leaving the technologies technically and economically underprepared if large-scale deployment becomes necessary due to unfulfilled emission reduction pledges. Here the authors model a new pathway in which CDR and decarbonization “Co-Scale” aggressively in parallel without one undermining the other, with the intention that they can readily course-correct if effort in one domain does not materialize. They treat this scenario as a stylized upper bound of what is climatically achievable under ideal enabling conditions, rather than what is immediately feasible under current technical, economic, and environmental constraints. They compare this pathway with two conventional designs, i.e., CDR-Led and Decarb-Led.

LINK⁠