Editorial: Developing and Deploying Negative Emission Technologies: System-Level Assessment and Rationalization

Climate change, induced by the excessive amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from anthropogenic activities, is one of the greatest global challenges of our times. To address this challenge, a range of important measures are being developed or have already been adopted, including switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy resources, reducing emissions through improving efficiencies and demand management, and capturing CO₂ at point sources with subsequent storage to avoid their release to the atmosphere. In addition to measures curbing new emissions, intentional atmospheric carbon dioxide removal (CDR) by negative emissions technologies (NETs) is increasingly considered as necessary for compliance with ambitious temperature targets. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2018), all climate pathways that limit global warming to 1.5°C with controlled (or no) overshoot project the use of CDR in the order of 100–1,000 GtCO₂ over the twenty first century. The deployment of NETs, removing CO₂ from the atmosphere and storing it on land, underground, or in the oceans, could become one of the most significant undertakings in industrial development, with profound impacts on the future of our society.