CO2-removal News

Nature – Beerling et al. (2025): Transforming US agriculture for carbon removal with enhanced weathering

David J. Beerling, Euripides P. Kantzas, Mark R. Lomas, Lyla L. Taylor, Shuang Zhang, Yoshiki Kanzaki, Rafael M. Eufrasio, Phil Renforth, Jean-Francois Mecure, Hector Pollitt, Philip B. Holden, Neil R. Edwards, Lenny Koh, Dimitar Z. Epihov, Adam Wolf, James E. Hansen, Steven A. Banwart, Nick F. Pidgeon, Christopher T. Reinhard, Noah J. Planavsky, Maria Val Martin IN: Nature, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08429-2

Enhanced weathering with agriculture uses crushed silicate rocks to drive CDR. If widely adopted on farmlands, it could help achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. Here we show, with a detailed US state-specific carbon cycle analysis constrained by resource provision, that EW deployed on agricultural land could sequester 0.16–0.30 GtCO2 yr−1 by 2050, rising to 0.25–0.49 GtCO2 yr−1 by 2070. 

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Schippers et al. (2025): Bargaining powers in cooperative Carbon Dioxide Removal deployment

Emma Jagu Schippers, Solène Chiquier, Olivier Massol, David Lowing, Niall Mac Dowell IN: Climate Policy, 1-16, https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2024.2445167

International cooperation has the potential to significantly reduce the costs of implementing CDR in line with the Paris Agreement. However, the success of interregional cooperation depends on whether a satisfying agreement can be reached. Regional bargaining powers may heavily influence the outcome of such an agreement. This paper uses cooperative game theory to assess bargaining powers in the cooperative deployment of CDR between the United States, the European Union, Brazil, and China. 

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Reginato (2025): Biotechnology in direct air capture, enhanced weathering, and methane removal: emerging opportunities and gaps

Paul L. Reginato IN: Frontiers in Climate 6, 1440833, https://doi.org/10.3389/fclim.2024.1440833

Due to the interdisciplinarity and novelty of greenhouse gas removal (GHGR) technologies, GHGR research faces challenges of adapting technical disciplines to new domains and broadly empowering researchers with the knowledge necessary to identify and solve key problems. This Perspective discusses the significant, but underexplored, role biotechnology could play in several GHGR technologies as well as the common research, community, and knowledge gaps that are limiting progress. The GHGR technologies of focus are (1) the potential for the enzyme carbonic anhydrase to catalyze CO2 exchange in direct air capture; (2) the potential utility of microbes for accelerating soil-based or reactor-based enhanced rock weathering; and (3) the potential for methanotrophic bacteria or methane monooxygenase enzymes to oxidize methane for atmospheric methane removal via enhanced methanotrophy or bioreactors.

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Fu et al. (2025): Tidal-driven N2O emission is a stronger resister than CH4 to offset annual carbon sequestration in mangrove ecosystems

Chunwei Fu, Zhibo Shen, Shiheng Tang, Fengying Li, Xin Quan, Yang Wang, Ya Zhuang, Jiasen Zhong, Jianan Liu, Jianzhong Su, Min Xu, Yu Han, Shuh-Ji Kao, Ehui Tan IN: Science of The Total Environment 964, 178568, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.178568

The mangrove ecosystems store a significant amount of “blue carbon” to mitigate global climate change, but also serve as hotspots for greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4 and N2O) production. The CH4 and N2O emissions offset mangrove carbon benefits, however, the extent of this effect remains inadequately quantified. By applying the 36 h time-series observations and mapping cruises, here the authors investigated the spatial and temporal distribution of GHGs and their fluxes in Dongzhaigang bay, the largest mangrove ecosystem in China, at tidal and monthly scales. 

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Fritz et al. (2025): Between inflated expectations and inherent distrust: How publics see the role of experts in governing climate intervention technologies

Livia Fritz, Lucilla Losi, Chad M. Baum, Sean Low, Benjamin K. Sovacool IN: Environmental Science and Policy, 164, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104005

Addressing questions around more effective governance of novel technologies for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and proposals around solar radiation modification necessitates reflections on how different kinds of expertise, normative judgments and democratic decision-making (should) interact. Based on a survey (N = 22,222) and 44 focus groups (N = 323) in 22 countries, the authors show (i) who publics see as an expert in the field of climate intervention technologies, (ii) what roles they envision for experts in governing climate intervention technologies and (iii) how trust and distrust in scientists unfolds in the context of these novel, partly controversial, technologies.

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Upeksha et al. (2025): Costs and benefits of afforestation with renewable electricity-based desalination: Case study for Egypt

Upeksha Caldera, Andreas Mühlbauer, Mai ElSayed, Arman Aghahosseiini, Christian Breyer IN: Smart Energy, 17, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.segy.2025.100174

Aim of this research is to show how Egypt can make use of its plentiful renewable resources, available land area, and access to the sea, to establish cost-effective afforestation irrigated with renewable energy-based seawater desalination for land degradation mitigation.

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Geerts et al. (2025): Review and syntheses: Ocean alkalinity enhancement and carbon dioxide removal through marine enhanced rock weathering using olivine

Luna J. J. Geerts, Astrid Hylén, Filip J. R. Meysman IN: Biogeosciences, 22, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-355-2025

Olivine has been put forward as the prime candidate mineral for marine enhanced rock weathering (mERW), but at present, no peer-reviewed results are available from larger-scale field studies in coastal areas, so the information about olivine dissolution in marine systems is largely derived from laboratory experiments. As a result, key uncertainties remain concerning the efficiency, CO2 sequestration potential, and impact of olivine-based mERW under relevant field conditions. In this review, the authors summarize recent research advancements to bridge the gap between existing laboratory results and the real-world environment in which mERW is intended to take place.

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Bhaumik et al. (2025): Prey dynamics as a buffer: Enhancing copepod resilience to Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement

Amrita Bhaumik, Giulia Faucher, Merle Henning, Cédric L. Meunier, Maarten Boersma IN: https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/adaa8c

This study disentangled the Ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) driven factors that might influence zooplankton physiology. The authors assessed the direct effect of altered chemistry on the copepod, Temora longicornis, and the indirect effect through changes in the phytoplankton prey, Rhodomonas salina. They cultured the prey in OAE conditions and used it to feed copepods to investigate the indirect effect.

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Sanchez et al. (2025): Carbon removal efficiency and energy requirement of engineered carbon removal technologies

Daniel L. Sanchez, Peter Psarras, Hannah K. Murnen, Barclay Rogers IN: RSC Sustainability, 2025, https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2025/su/d4su00552j

The authors conduct a harmonized lifecycle greenhouse gas assessment to compare the carbon removal efficiency and total energy required for twelve engineered carbon removal technologies. The goal of this comparison is to enable the assessment of diverse engineered carbon removal approaches on a consistent basis.

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Oberlander et al. (2025): Assessing the impacts of simulated ocean alkalinity enhancement on viability and growth of nearshore species of phytoplankton

Jessica L. Oberlander, Mackenzie E. Burke, Cat A. London, Hugh L. MacIntyre IN: Biogeoschiences 22, 499-512, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-499-2025

One proposed NET is ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE), in which artificially raising the alkalinity favours formation of bicarbonate from CO2, leading to a decrease in the partial pressure of CO2 in the water. Subsequent invasion of atmospheric CO2 results in net sequestration of atmospheric carbon. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of simulated OAE, through the alteration of pH, on phytoplankton representative of the spring and fall blooms in nearshore, temperate waters.

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