No compromise in efficiency from the co-application of a marine and a terrestrial CDR method
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Moustakis, Yiannis
Wey, Hao-Wei
Nützel, Tobias
Oschlies, Andreas
Pongratz, Julia
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Modelled pathways consistent with the Paris Agreement goals to mitigate warming typically include the large-scale application of Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR), which can include both land- and marine-based CDR methods. However, the Earth system responses and feedbacks to scaling up and/or combining different CDR methods remain understudied. Here, these are assessed by employing two Earth System Models, with a multifactorial setup of 42 emission-driven simulations covering the whole spectrum of Afforestation/Reforestation (0-927 Mha) and of Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (0-18 Pmol) over the 21st century. We show that global carbon flux responses scale linearly when different CDR methods are scaled up and/or combined, which suggests that the efficiency of CDR is insensitive to both the amount of CDR and the CDR portfolio composition. Therefore, combining CDR methods, which seems beneficial for diversifying risks and remaining below sustainability thresholds, does not compromise the efficiency of individual applications.
Date Issued
2025-05-21
Date Acceptance
2025-05-08
Citation
Nature Communications, 2025, 16
ISSN
2041-1723
Publisher
Nature Portfolio
Journal / Book Title
Nature Communications
Volume
16
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2025 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
4709
Date Publish Online
2025-05-21