Are giant CO₂ vacuum cleaners part of the future?
What role do new technological solutions such as Direct Air Capture play in achieving climate neutrality? Join us for a debate at the Danish Democracy Festival about how we can accelerate research and develop new technology to remove CO₂ from the atmosphere.
Info about event
Time
Location
Tech Teltet, Folkemødet (Danish Democracy Festival)
Organizer
In order to meet the long-term climate goals in the Paris Agreement it is not enough to reduce the emission of harmful emissions of greenhouse gases, we must also actively remove excess CO2 in the atmosphere, thus creating so-called negative emissions - or climate positivity. This means that more CO2 is removed from the atmosphere than is emitted. The CO2 can be removed from the atmosphere either through a number of nature-based solutions (e.g. fields and forests) or via man-made engineered solutions designed to remove CO2 on a large scale.
The permanence of natural storage of CO2 in forests and soils is subject to great uncertainty. CO2 absorbed in forests and fields can be emitted again within a few years or decades if, for example, there is a change in land use, as a result of changed consumption, production or incidents such as forest fires (source: CONCITO: Negative Emissions (2023)).
Therefore, we cannot avoid the fact that there should also be an intensive focus on the technological solutions that remove CO2 from the atmosphere, because the amount of CO2 that has been emitted in excess over time and which is in the process of creating massive, global climate change continues to rise and cannot be removed with nature-based solutions alone.
So, which solutions should we invest in in Denmark and Europe in order to achieve the necessary negative emissions? Massive investments are currently being made in CCUS solutions, but how do we ensure that the invested money is used in the best possible way? And what role can new technological solutions such as Direct Air Capture play in this process? It is still an developing technology, with great potential, which, however, requires that energy consumption can be lowered significantly - but what does that require?
Meet our expert panel:
- Ulrich Bang, Deputy Director for Climate, Energy and Environment in Danish Business
- Lars Ottosen, Professor and Head of Department at Aarhus University/CORC
- Moderator: Lotte Folke Kaarsholm, journalist and Opinion Editor at Politiken
The session is concretized and visualized by graphic facilitator Anna Laybourn, who creates the big picture!