Trials to suck carbon dioxide from the air to start across the UK
A major $42.5 million project will test trees, peat, rock chips, and charcoal as ways of removing climate-heating emissions.
Sitka Spruce North Doddington England
Published
May 25, 2021
This story was originally published by The Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
Climate-heating carbon dioxide will be sucked from the air using trees, peat, rock chips, and charcoal in major new trials across the United Kingdom.
Scientists said the past failure to rapidly cut emissions means some CO2 will need to be removed from the atmosphere to reach net zero by 2050 and halt the climate crisis. The £30 million ($42.5 million) project funded by UK Research and Innovation will test ways to do this effectively and affordably on over 100 hectares (247 acres) of land, making it one of the biggest trials in the world.
Degraded peatlands will be re-wetted and replanted in the Pennines and west Wales, while rock chips that absorb CO2 as they break down in soil will be tested on farms in Devon, Hertfordshire and mid-Wales. Special charcoal called biochar will be buried at a sewage disposal site, on former mine sites and railway embankments.
https://grist.org/climate/trials-to-suck-carbon-dioxide-from-the-air-to-start-across-the-uk/
