Storing carbon underground? There's less room than we thought, new study suggests

illuminem summarises for you the essential news of the day. Read the full piece on CBC News or enjoy below:

🗞️ Driving the news: A new study published in Nature significantly revises down global estimates for safe underground carbon dioxide (CO₂) storage
• While previous assessments projected up to 12,000 billion tonnes of CO₂ storage capacity, the new analysis finds only 1,460 billion tonnes can be safely stored—enough to reduce global warming by just 0.7°C
• The researchers factored in a broader range of real-world constraints, including seismic risks, proximity to communities, and ecological sensitivities

🔭 The context: Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is increasingly seen as a key tool in climate strategies, especially for decarbonizing heavy industries and achieving net-zero targets
• Countries like Canada, the U.S., and members of the EU are heavily investing in CCS through public subsidies and tax incentives
• However, the technology remains largely unproven at scale and often faces logistical, geological, and political challenges

🌍 Why it matters for the planet: This study reframes carbon storage as a scarce and strategic resource, not a universal fallback
• It challenges the assumption that we can rely on CCS to compensate for delayed emissions reductions or future carbon removal
• The limited safe capacity underscores the urgency of immediate emissions cuts and raises concerns about the viability of “overshoot” climate models that bank on large-scale carbon removal in the future

⏭️ What's next: Policymakers may need to reassess the role of CCS in national and international climate plans, particularly in scenarios assuming massive long-term storage
• Regulatory bodies could revise support mechanisms to prioritize high-integrity, geographically viable projects
• At the same time, growing attention may shift to alternative storage media, such as offshore basalt formations, which some researchers argue have untapped potential
• A sharper focus on early deployment, cost-efficiency, and long-term monitoring is expected across the sector

💬 One quote: “If we consider carbon storage to be a scarce resource... then countries should be very explicit about how they plan to use it in order to meet their climate pledges.” — Matthew Gidden, University of Maryland’s Center for Global Sustainability

📈 One stat: New estimates suggest only 1,460 billion tonnes of CO₂ can be safely stored underground globally—just 12% of earlier projections

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