Becoming carbon neutral by 2050 ‘possible, but very challenging’

The Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering have set out plans showing how the UK could deploy greenhouse-gas removal technologies to become carbon neutral by 2050.

The report, published on 12 September, says that for the UK to achieve a net-zero carbon emissions status by 2050 it must rapidly deploy a portfolio of greenhouse-gas removal technologies in addition to limiting emissions.

The technologies should include known techniques such as a rapid increase in forestation, restoring peatlands and coastal wetlands so that they can store more carbon, and using wood in construction. But the UK should also accelerate research into other “unproven but promising” methods such as biochar—adding partly burned biomass into soils—and establish “substantial infrastructure and capacity” for carbon capture and storage, which aims to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.