On a mission to eliminate legacy carbon emissions, with Carbon180’s Anu Khan

10/25/23 • 37 min

Anu Khan, Deputy Director of Science and Innovation at the nonprofit Carbon180, joins Good Clean Energy to discuss the ins and outs of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Throughout the industrial era, we’ve emitted roughly 2 trillion tons of carbon dioxide, 1 trillion of which is still in the atmosphere today and is going to continue to cause warming for an extended period of time. Most of that warming is caused by the burning of fossil fuels for energy, and reducing emissions is crucial to keeping global warming below the goal of 2°C. But the challenge doesn’t end there. That’s where carbon dioxide removal comes in.
While there are a few ways to actually remove the carbon dioxide and there’s the question of who should really pay for it, it’s clear that CO2 removal is necessary. “It's fundamentally a climate justice solution, and carbon removed anywhere benefits everyone globally,” Khan said.

Covered in this episode:

[3:28] The role of carbon in our planet
[5:42] Why we need carbon removal in addition to clean energy
[7:38] The difference between carbon capture and carbon removal
[11:28] How much CO2 we need to remove from the atmosphere
[15:11] The suite of carbon removal solutions
[16:38] Who pays for carbon dioxide removal
[21:04] The personal carbon offset market
[22:27] The potential for cost-effective CO2 removal
[25:05] The leading approach to direct air capture
[28:57] The most compelling argument for CO2 removal
[32:19] A vision for 2035

For show notes and a full transcript, head to the episode page.

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10/25/23 • 37 min

Good Clean Energy - On a mission to eliminate legacy carbon emissions, with Carbon180’s Anu Khan

Transcript

Twenty years ago, when I was traveling with my family, we flew from Chile to Easter Island to explore the most remote location on the planet, really. It's also known as Rapa Nui. You stand on the beach and you look up at these huge statues that are lined up like little soldiers. You know, some are six feet tall, some are 30 feet tall. The men would set out to carve a likeness of their chief in stone, and originally these were modest things. They were, you know, four or five feet tall.

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