Carbon Capture
What people say
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) and direct air capture (DAC) are essential climate solutions. The fossil fuel industry points to CCS as a way to continue oil and gas production while meeting climate goals. The US DOE has invested billions in carbon capture hubs. Companies like Climeworks and Carbon Engineering are building DAC plants. The narrative: technology will let us capture our way out of the climate crisis while maintaining our energy system.
What's actually true
The world's existing CCS capacity captures approximately 45 million tons of CO2 per year — roughly 0.12% of global annual emissions (37.4 billion tons). Most captured carbon is used for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) — pumping CO2 into depleted oil wells to extract more oil, which produces additional emissions. Climeworks' Orca plant in Iceland, the largest operating DAC facility, captures 4,000 tons per year — equivalent to the annual emissions of roughly 250 US residents. The energy cost of DAC is fundamental and unavoidable: thermodynamics dictates a minimum of ~250 kWh per ton of CO2 for direct air capture (the CO2 in air is very dilute at 420 ppm). Scaling DAC to capture 1 billion tons/year would require approximately 250 TWh of energy — more than the total electricity consumption of Australia. CCS on power plants adds 50-90% to the levelized cost of electricity. The technology exists and works at small scale, but the physics and economics of scaling it to climate-relevant levels are daunting and rarely discussed alongside the optimistic headlines.
Key Evidence
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report IEA Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage 2024
International Energy Agency annual review of global CCS/DAC capacity, energy use, and policy landscape.
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dataset Global Carbon Budget 2024 (Global Carbon Project)
Annual assessment of global CO2 emissions, including total 37.4 billion tons for 2024.
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company_filing Climeworks Orca Plant Specifications
Climeworks' official specifications for the Orca DAC plant in Iceland: 4,000 tons/year capacity.