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🏛️ The U.S. has arguably been the global leader for getting carbon dioxide removal (hashtag#CDR) off the ground, investing billions already, particularly for direct air carbon capture and storage (hashtag#DACCS). The recently released “2024 Carbon Management Strategy” now fills many of the conceptual gaps and tries to provide a clear, quantified framework for the role CDR will play in the U.S.
🎯 The strategy sets ambitious (non-binding) targets for tech based CDR, aiming to reach 25–30 million metric tonnes (Mt) annually by 2030 and scaling up to 200–700 Mt annually by 2050. The latter number in particular is significantly higher than I would have expected.
The strategy presents the structured allocation of more than $12 billion in funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (hashtag#IIJA) and additional resources from the Inflation Reduction Act (hashtag#IRA).
☁️ $49-70 million annually for CDR technologies
🏭 $99-135 million annually for point-source carbon capture
🏗️ $97-110 million annually for infrastructure development
🔀 It focuses on creating regional hubs leveraging pockets of industrial activity and helps scale a cohesive, nationwide carbon management industry through the optimisation of a shared infrastructure use (e.g. pipelines and storage facilities), reducing costs and increasing deployment speed.
👷 Additionally the strategy also outlines potential for employment generation with 200,000-300,000 new direct jobs created by 2030 and up to 1.4-2.9 million new direct jobs created by 2050.
😞 While the DOE strategy positions CDR technologies as integral to achieving national net-zero goals, it primarily targets as DAC and BECCS while other promising CDR approaches like biochar carbon removal (hashtag#BCR) enhanced weathering (hashtag#EW), and ocean-based CDR (hashtag#mCDR) solutions being underrepresented.
🚜 Complementary initiatives, potentially led by the USDA or through the Farm Bill, will be critical to broaden the scope and allow *all* CDR technologies to scale and contribute to getting the U.S. to net-zero
⚠️ Reminder that this report is a draft for public comment which can be submitted to carbonmanagementstrategy@hq.doe.gov by December 10, 2024.
😬 My take: this is an incredible vision for the role of CDR in the U.S. It reflects the ambition of the Biden presidency and builds on huge achievements like the IRA and the IIJA. Will it stand the test of time? That depends on what will happen tomorrow.
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