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CSIRO, Australia's national science agency, has released the Australian Carbon Dioxide Removal Roadmap detailing the potential for a novel CDR industry that could help the nation, and the rest of the world, reach net zero.
The roadmap is led by CSIRO and supported by partners including Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, Google, Geoscience Australia and the South Australian, Western Australian and New South Wales state governments. It builds on decades of CSIRO research on carbon management and innovation.
What is Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR)
Carbon Dioxide Removal refers to human-facilitated activities that remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and durably store it in geological, land or ocean reservoirs, or products. CDR differs from carbon capture and storage (CCS), which seeks to prevent carbon from reaching the atmosphere.
Why is CDR important?
Achieving net zero emissions to meet the goals of the international Paris Agreement is only possible if countries simultaneously remove CO2 from the atmosphere and reduce emissions. In the near term, CDR must complement, not replace, deep emissions reductions, particularly in hard-to-abate sectors. Over the longer term, CDR will play a key role in balancing residual emissions and delivering net-negative outcomes needed to stabilise the climate.
Our Approach
The Roadmap outlines the capabilities and potential of novel carbon dioxide removal (CDR) in Australia and aims to complement Australian emission reduction approaches and existing conventional (or nature-based) CDR approaches that are already contributing to Australia’s progress on climate change. These novel CDR approaches have the potential to remove large volumes of CO2 and offer the potential for scalable and durable storage over centuries to millennia, but are still emerging and not yet at the scale needed.
The Roadmap provides a framework for government, industry, researchers, and communities to foster the responsible development of a new CDR industry and provides quantitative analysis for the following approaches:
- direct air capture and storage
- biomass carbon removal and storage
- ocean alkalinity enhancement
- enhanced rock weathering.
Australia’s rich natural and energy resources offer a globally unique foundation to develop novel CDR at scale. To realise the potential of novel CDR, it will take more than technologies alone; its success will depend heavily on a well-designed enabling environment that guides and supports the development of a novel CDR industry in Australia. In the long-term, Australia could establish itself as a leader in novel CDR
Read more in our report and view the Australian CDR Roadmap - Modelling Appendix.
Download the report
CSIRO, Australia's national science agency, has released the Australian Carbon Dioxide Removal Roadmap PDF (9 MB) detailing the potential for a novel CDR industry that could help the nation, and the rest of the world, reach net zero.
The roadmap is led by CSIRO and supported by partners including Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, Google, Geoscience Australia and the South Australian, Western Australian and New South Wales state governments. It builds on decades of CSIRO research on carbon management and innovation.
What is Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR)
Carbon Dioxide Removal refers to human-facilitated activities that remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and durably store it in geological, land or ocean reservoirs, or products. CDR differs from carbon capture and storage (CCS), which seeks to prevent carbon from reaching the atmosphere.
Why is CDR important?
Achieving net zero emissions to meet the goals of the international Paris Agreement is only possible if countries simultaneously remove CO2 from the atmosphere and reduce emissions. In the near term, CDR must complement, not replace, deep emissions reductions, particularly in hard-to-abate sectors. Over the longer term, CDR will play a key role in balancing residual emissions and delivering net-negative outcomes needed to stabilise the climate.
Our Approach
The Roadmap outlines the capabilities and potential of novel carbon dioxide removal (CDR) in Australia and aims to complement Australian emission reduction approaches and existing conventional (or nature-based) CDR approaches that are already contributing to Australia’s progress on climate change. These novel CDR approaches have the potential to remove large volumes of CO2 and offer the potential for scalable and durable storage over centuries to millennia, but are still emerging and not yet at the scale needed.
The Roadmap provides a framework for government, industry, researchers, and communities to foster the responsible development of a new CDR industry and provides quantitative analysis for the following approaches:
- direct air capture and storage
- biomass carbon removal and storage
- ocean alkalinity enhancement
- enhanced rock weathering.
Australia’s rich natural and energy resources offer a globally unique foundation to develop novel CDR at scale. To realise the potential of novel CDR, it will take more than technologies alone; its success will depend heavily on a well-designed enabling environment that guides and supports the development of a novel CDR industry in Australia. In the long-term, Australia could establish itself as a leader in novel CDR
Read more in our report PDF (9 MB) and view the Australian CDR Roadmap - Modelling Appendix PDF (2 MB).