S&P Global recently published a podcast mini-series on emerging climate technology.
The series not only introduces a range of much hyped about, CO2 saving or CO2 removing technology, but also looks at scaling, the truth of potential impact, and financial viability.
At the core of the series is the following question:
As companies and countries around the world pursue net zero targets, one big question is: How do you ensure the carbon removal technologies we will need 20 to 30 years down the road are available, affordable and easily scaled?
It is for this reason that I would like to list the three episodes in this post – and invite everyone to spend the 3 x 20 minutes to wrap their head around these insights.
Episode 1: Direct Air Capture – A high-tech fix for climate change?
Can a global array of CO2-sucking machines save us from the worst ravages of climate change?
The episode examines a method called Direct Air Capture, or DAC Right now, DAC is expensive and only at the nascent stages of development. But there’s growing support from entrepreneurs and some large companies to deploy the approach on an industrial scale.
Episode 2: Biogas, Carbon Fementation, and Bio Energy Carbon Removal and Storage
Is biogas a suitable technology? And if so when and where?
What is carbon fermentation? And what does it have to do with plastics and textiles?
And is there a yet unknown future for incinerators, where such plants act as carbon-capture-and-storage facilities, even if the rest of the world is talking about the Circular Economy?
Episode 3: Enhanced Weathering and Paper to decarbonise Road Construction
What is ‘Enhanced Weathering’? What does relate to the soil’s capacity to absorb more carbon? And how does it bring together two improbable allies: farming and the mining industries?
The paper industry is trying to find its 2.0 incarnation. And with that come efforts that surprisingly try to improve the carbon footprint that comes with road making.
This episode hence brings 2 case studies that together could change three industries: agriculture, mining, and road construction.
