Will it be possible to remove CO2 from the atmosphere?Now it's better to cut emissions

Is it possible to remove CO2 from the atmosphere?Big tech's goal is to remove 100,000 tons of CO2 by 2030.But it's not enough.

Some tech giants have formed an alliance in the name of a promising but still developing technology.It happened last May at World economic forum Of Davos.This is the mechanism of removal of carbon dioxide (carbon dioxide removal, Cdr), with which it would be possible to suck CO2 from the atmosphere, transforming it into something else.For example, in building bricks.

CO2 removal:we are still talking about something distant

The problem?These machines are still very expensive and inefficient.Also for this reason, companies like Microsoft, Alphabet And Salesforce have announced a 500 million dollar investment for the sector, which aims to remove one hundred thousand tons of CO2 by 2030.Amazing numbers that remain only promises, at least to date.Indeed, the specter of carbon dioxide removal risks becoming “a dangerous distraction,” as the magazine called it Technology review of Mit, because it makes a life of exit that doesn't exist for now seem close and possible.

Worse yet, the idea of magically remove CO2 from the atmosphere could be used as an alibi to avoid investing in the necessary policies - however painful - which are instead the only key to tackling the environmental crisis:drastically reduce CO2 emissions to the point of eliminating them, hitting particularly heavy sectors such as that of constructions (cement alone is responsible for eight percent of global carbon dioxide emissions) and transport. And instead Big tech, an energy-intensive sector that has always been attentive to green solutions, is becoming infatuated with a technology that is still shaky and risky.A United Nations report published last April limited the use that could be made of machinery for carbon removal, which are still defined as "inevitable" to balance the emissions of industries that are unlikely to become carbon-free, such as the chemical or production-related ones of aluminium.

In short, the future needs an approach to the environment drastic and complex of which carbon removal may be a part but it will not be the secret weapon, the deus ex machina with which to erase our footprint from the atmosphere.However, the plan of technology companies seems to go in a different direction, investing considerable resources to "scale" the technology, making it more accessible and economical.Last April, moreover, another group of companies in the sector - including Stripe, Alphabet, Meta And Shopify – launched an “early market commitment” called Frontier. In practice, with Frontier these giants have committed to purchasing more than 900 million dollars of carbon dioxide removed by 2030. Carbon removed which, to date, however, does not exist or does not exist in significant quantities.But the intent is to encourage researchers and companies to invest in the sector, indicating it as a business possibility for the future.It is to be hoped that it works, even if the hypothetical technology alone would not be enough to resolve our relationship with the resources of this Planet:for that the magic wand will not be enough.