Carbon Capture Technology Is Too Expensive to Have a Meaningful Impact on Climate Change

What's this about?

People disagree about whether carbon capture costs too much to help slow climate change. Carbon capture traps carbon dioxide before, or after, it enters the air.

What supporters say

• Cement plants make carbon dioxide through their own chemical steps, so clean power alone cannot stop all of it.
• Some hard-to-stop pollution may remain, even after big cuts in coal, oil, and gas use.
• Carbon capture could help reach net zero (adding no more climate harm than we remove).
• Trapping carbon from factory smoke usually costs less than pulling it from open air.

What critics say

• Today’s projects remain far too small to make the large cuts the world needs.
• Pulling carbon dioxide from open air costs a lot because the gas spreads very thinly.
• New projects often need costly pipes, safe storage sites, and other new gear.
• Costs might fall as more projects share pipes and storage, but we’re not sure this will happen.

The bottom line

Carbon capture could help in some hard-to-clean areas, such as cement plants. But it cannot yet work at the huge scale needed, and some types still cost too much.