Big businesses are doing carbon dioxide removal all wrong, report says

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🗞️ Driving the news: A new report from the NewClimate Institute warns that major corporations are misusing carbon dioxide removal (CDR) to bolster net-zero pledges without cutting emissions at source
• Of 35 global companies studied across seven sectors, most leaned on short-term, nondurable methods such as tree-planting rather than investing in scalable “durable” removals that lock carbon away for millennia
• The report calls this a “dangerous mismatch” between corporate climate claims and what is needed to achieve global net-zero

🔭 The context: Achieving the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C target requires both deep emissions cuts and durable CDR to balance residual emissions by 2050, according to the IPCC
• Yet durable approaches — such as mineralization or geological storage — currently account for just 0.1% of global CDR
• Voluntary corporate initiatives, while growing, remain fragmented and often emphasize low-cost, short-lived offsets that risk overstating climate progress
• Tech firms like Microsoft have been leaders in durable CDR contracts, but even they face criticism for combining removals with avoidable emissions

🌍 Why it matters for the planet: Overreliance on nondurable CDR could undermine climate integrity by masking continued fossil fuel use
• Durable CDR is essential for hard-to-abate sectors, but it must complement — not replace — aggressive decarbonization
• Without stronger governance, corporate climate claims may erode public trust and delay investment in the technologies that could provide long-term atmospheric carbon reductions

⏭️ What's next: Standards bodies such as the Science-Based Targets initiative and the International Organization for Standardization are preparing updated net-zero guidance that may limit corporate use of nondurable CDR and demand clearer definitions
• Governments are also under pressure to regulate corporate climate strategies to ensure mitigation precedes offsetting
• The next decade is considered pivotal to scaling durable CDR technologies before 2050 targets become unattainable

💬 One quote: “The priority has to be on reducing emissions, not on durable CDR at this point,” said Jonathan Overpeck, dean at the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability

📈 One stat: As of 2023, just 0.0023 gigatons of CO₂ were removed annually via durable methods — roughly 15,000 times less than yearly emissions from fossil fuels and cement

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