While the value of carbon dioxide is beyond doubt, people have been able to capture carbon dioxide and use it in industrial processes to produce synthetic fuels and other renewable products, which will contribute to the long-awaited “net zero emissions”.

According to a report on the Spanish “Le Monde” website on December 9, a seemingly absurd but not absurd fact is: as the “enemy” that humans need to overcome to fight climate change, carbon dioxide has become an “ally” for building a more sustainable world. There are a number of technologies that can recover carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and use it as a raw material to produce “net zero emission” synthetic fuels, or to make polymers for car seat or cushion foam.

It is reported as the Negative Emission Technology (NET), Which can reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and reduce the pressure on “natural treatment plants” such as forests and oceans. The goal of the “Paris Agreement” is to keep the earth’s temperature rising below 2 degrees Celsius. In addition to improving energy efficiency and reducing emissions, a large-scale implementation of NET is also required. Human intervention is critical to mitigating climate change. Afforestation and forest protection programs, as well as the development of carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) technologies, can all make use of carbon dioxide.

The report pointed out that thanks to the research, the road of emission reduction was “paved” in a very short time, and negative emission has become an achievable goal. The challenge now is to know how to make these technologies cost-competitive, and how long it will take to put them into use.

As the report indicated, in the absence of human intervention, half of the carbon dioxide produced by human activities is absorbed by natural processes, and the other half remains in the atmosphere. According to the International Energy Agency, by 2040, carbon capture can reduce carbon dioxide by up to 7%, which is equivalent to an annual reduction of 2.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions. In addition, these carbon dioxide can also be used as raw materials for sustainable use. Currently, 20 industrial-grade facilities can capture approximately 30 million tons of carbon dioxide each year.

Experts say that these technologies that can reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the air on a large scale should, in most cases, be in line with global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing carbon dioxide emissions has been included in the European Commission’s long-term climate strategy, which aims to make Europe the first continent to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. German Chancellor Merkel “confirms” that “only if we are fully prepared to capture and store carbon dioxide” can this goal be achieved.