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EESA Scientist Coauthors New Comprehensive Guide on Removing CO2 from the Atmosphere2 min read

by Julie Chao on January 18, 2021

Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division

photo of researcher working in agrulcultural field

Berkeley Lab researchers are working on ways to sequester more carbon in soil, including through agricultural practices. (Credit: Berkeley Lab)

Scientists say that any serious plan to address climate change should include carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies and policies, which makes the newly launched CDR Primer an especially vital resource, says Berkeley Lab scientist Margaret Torn, one of about three dozen scientists who contributed to this document.

“Atmospheric CO2 concentrations are already 50% over historic natural levels – 270 ppm (parts per million) in pre-industrial times vs 414 ppm today,” said Torn. “To slow climate change and avoid its worst impacts, climate scientists tell us that we need to restore atmospheric CO2 concentrations to about 350 ppm or less. To do that, we need CDR technologies and polices to remove excess CO2 from the atmosphere.”

Carbon dioxide removal, also often referred to as negative emissions technologies, encompasses a broad array of techniques and practices, such as geologic sequestration, direct air capture, bioenergy with carbon capture, and improved forest management. The lead editors of the CDR Primer are from the University of Pennsylvania and CarbonPlan.

“Because there are so many different negative emissions technologies, nobody is an expert in all of them,” said Torn, a senior scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Earth and Environmental Sciences Area. “There was a need for one comprehensive document to introduce students and practitioners to all of the different options. The strength of this document is that it comprehensive, in terms of how many different approaches are covered, and that it considers technological readiness, cost, and global potentials.”

Sequestering carbon in soil through improved agricultural practices could be an especially attractive and efficacious CDR technique, Torn said. Berkeley Lab scientists are working on how to quantify and manage root growth and how to understand and harness the soil microbiome for carbon sequestration. If it were implemented globally, it has the potential to sequester a large amount of carbon, plus it’s considered a “no regrets” strategy because increasing the amount of carbon in the soil is good for soil health anyway, she said.

The document, two years in the making, was supported by a number of foundations and other organizations and will be made available for free as a digital, open-source book.

News & Events

EESA Celebrates International Day of Women & Girls in Science2 min read

February 24, 2021

On 11 February, the United Nations, Berkeley Lab, and other organizations worldwide marked the 6th annual International Day of Women and Girls in Science. The day focuses on the reality that science and gender equality are both vital for the achievement of international development goals, such as climate change mitigation. Susan Hubbard, Associate Laboratory Director…

EESA Scientists Contribute to DOE GTO Research on Critical Minerals2 min read

  Scientists in the Energy Geosciences Division are contributing to research sponsored by the DOE Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO) investigating the potential extraction of lithium, rare earth elements, and other critical minerals that are dissolved constituents of hot geothermal brines that are used to produce  electricity. Far more information is currently needed, for instance, about…

CSA News Calls Out Recent NGEE-Tropics Research2 min read

February 22, 2021

  CSA News, the magazine of three related societies: the Agronomy Society of America, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, published an article in its January 2021 issue describing research led by research scientist Robinson Negrón Juárez, on behalf of the NGEE-Tropics project. The article highlights a paper published recently…

Two EESA Women Chosen for the 2020 Women @ The Lab Awards2 min read

February 9, 2021

Two EESA women, Sandy Chin and Laura Nielsen Lammers, were chosen for the 2020 Women @ The Lab awards. They join an esteemed cohort of 15 women across Berkeley Lab who have made and continue to make significant contributions in the areas of leadership, science, operations, mentorship, and outreach.  Sandy Chin, who recently assumed the…

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