Frequently Asked Questions
What is Carbon Dioxide Removal?
Carbon Dioxide Removal (or CDR) is an umbrella term for any action capable of pulling the carbon dioxide that is heating our planet out of the atmosphere and storing it in some way for decades, centuries or even millennia.​
Human have done some of these actions for centuries, such as the planting of trees or the spreading of biochar on farmland. Other methods – including machines able to filter carbon dioxide directly from the air – require extra development to make them more effective or affordable.
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These newer activities are often called “novel” Carbon Dioxide Removal.
Even with more established actions, researchers are studying how much carbon dioxide gets stored, how long it gets stored for, and ways to prevent the gas from re-entering the atmosphere.
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Beyond fighting climate change, many technologies have other benefits. For example, biochar can improve soil nutrient availability, helping crops to grow. Enhanced Rock Weathering (spreading carbon-reactive powdered rock on land) can ameliorate ocean acidification.
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Some Carbon Removal technologies share similarities with another approach called Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage. But rather than sucking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere as Carbon Removal does, Carbon Capture catches greenhouse gases as they are produced – for example, in the smokestack of a coal-burning power plant.​
At most, Carbon Capture will transform that power plant from one producing lots of emissions to one producing zero emissions overall (or “net zero”).
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But Carbon Removal essentially produces “negative emissions”: meaning there is less greenhouse gas in the atmosphere by the end.
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To illustrate the difference, we’ve produced this infographic.
Why are people working on Carbon Dioxide Removal?
Experts predict that the world cannot meet its climate goals and avoid the worst effects of climate change without large volumes of Carbon Dioxide Removal.
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Many sources of emissions can be replaced, relatively easily and affordably, with renewable energy sources – such as replacing a coal-burning power plant with solar and wind farms. Some industries such as steelmaking could swap a high-emitting process for a lower- or non-emitting one, including using sustainable hydrogen gas to purify metal.
​Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage technologies can catch and store some, maybe all, planet-heating gas when it is produced at heavy concentrations.
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But there is likely to be a few remaining sources of greenhouse gas where none of these options will work: such as long-haul air travel or methane-burping livestock. We can’t fit a carbon capture factory on the back of a plane or a cow!
​Carbon Dioxide Removal could balance out, or offset, these remaining emissions: allowing our world to reach the critical goal of net-zero emissions sooner.
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Beyond that, Carbon Dioxide Removal could allow future generations to start to bring down the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, particularly if the world overshoots its emissions targets.
The important role that Carbon Dioxide Removal will play to protect the future is what attracted our team of more than 25 academics and early-career researchers to this subject.
Is Carbon Dioxide Removal a good thing or a bad thing?
Carbon Dioxide Removal actively removes planet-heating gases from the atmosphere, fighting the effects of climate change.
Climate change is already affecting our weather, homes, health and happiness. If removal activities can collectively reduce the degree to which the planet heats, they will be a positive force for humanity and the environment.
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Still, it’s important to ensure that we’re counting the carbon removed accurately and have robust tools in place to prevent losses back to the atmosphere. While some side effects of removal activities will be positive, we need to anticipate and mitigate the impact of any less-desirable effects on the nearby community and environment.
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While Carbon Dioxide Removal has no connection to fossil fuels – unlike technologies known as Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage – it is likely that Carbon Dioxide Removals will be used in the near term to offset other emissions, especially as there are few policies tools in place around the world to incentivise removals beyond offsetting.
There are concerns that investments in Carbon Dioxide Removal are being used as a smokescreen to delay effective and currently affordable efforts and policies that would move away from fossil fuels.
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As well as our R&D into removals, many members of our team work every day on the most effective ways to deploy renewable energy and processes to replace fossil fuels and achieve global net-zero goals. Our research on Carbon Dioxide Removal focuses on sectors that have no reliable or comparatively affordable alternatives.
Find more about our reasoning on this subject here on our blog.
Who is doing Carbon Dioxide Removal in New Zealand?
Other than us, of course: government ministries, councils, research institutes and private companies are all working on initiatives to introduce, monitor or regulate Carbon Dioxide Removal technologies in New Zealand.
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We have built relationships with private companies looking to deploy their removal technologies in New Zealand, to see how we can help each other.
We also work closely with the marine Carbon Dioxide Removal project, led by Earth Science NZ researchers. Like us, it is funded by an Endeavour Grant from the Government.
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Finally, we are working with local and central government to understand how this tech will be regulated – including through the proposed national frameworks for Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage and Carbon Dioxide Removal.