The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has described the challenge in great detail for decades already. We just haven’t been paying close attention.

According to the IPCC, starting around the year 2050 and continuing until around 2100, we need to somehow remove billions of tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) every year from the Earth’s atmosphere in order to keep our planet from overheating. That’s remove, as in get rid of excess CO2 gas by any variety of means. And that’s billions of tons, less than what we currently dump into our atmosphere but still on the same scale. And that’s assuming we’ve met all our other CO2 reduction targets, which we have not.

If we don’t turn on this global CO2 vacuum, we’re cooked, literally. In their most current advice, the IPCC refers to carbon dioxide removal (CDR) as being required, not optional.

Despite the gravity of this situation and the decades of time we have had to prepare, the world is not even remotely close to being able to pull off this feat. We have fragments of workable technology, but we lack research, coordination, large-scale deployment, policy, and political will. In addition, almost all of our policy attention remains focused on trying to meet emission targets, along with other CO2 reduction efforts like conservation and green energy conversion.

In this mix, CDR is portrayed as being too risky, too unrealistic, too uncoordinated, and likely to distract attention and resources from “real” solutions like emissions controls and conservation. In the meantime, the need for large-scale C02 removal has become more urgent than ever because we’ve continually missed our targets, badly, and because our conservation and conversion efforts haven’t been enough—they were never intended to be enough all by themselves.

Understanding that time is running out, several countries and companies around the world have started deploying CDR solutions, but nothing is happening yet at scale, and what’s being envisioned so far is only a fraction of what will eventually be needed to control global warming. Critically, there is also no global coordination for this vital work, and there needs to be in order for it to succeed.

The goal of the Global CDR Action Network (CDRANet) is to help bridge these gaps. CDRANet is a diverse, global, high-level network of experts who will begin working together in late 2024 across countries and stakeholder groups to help develop the framework for realistic, responsible, scientifically sound, and broadly acceptable global CDR policies that can deployed in time to help save our planet. CDR efforts have already started. CDRNet will help make these efforts more effective.