China’s 2060 net-zero goal needs large-scale negative emissions tech

By Donna Lu

Qilai Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images

China’s pledge to reach carbon neutrality by 2060 may depend on extracting greenhouse gases from the air at massive scales – on the order of 2.5 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide per year.

Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the ambitious target last month at the UN general assembly, saying that the country’s aim was “to have CO2 emissions peak before 2030”.

To do so would require significant use of negative emissions technologies, such as capturing carbon dioxide directly from the air …