How Much Carbon Do We Need to Capture?

Efforts to combat global warming by capturing carbon dioxide are falling short, with 746 gigatonnes still needing to be removed to reach net zero emissions. Traditional methods like growing trees and enhancing soil have limitations, prompting the exploration of new technologies like direct air capture (DAC). Geologists have identified underground reservoirs capable of storing trillions of tonnes of CO2, but current removal methods are not scaling up fast enough. To limit warming to 2 °C, it's estimated that 525 to 755 gigatonnes of CO2 need to be removed by 2100, with DAC and other novel methods needing to ramp up significantly.