We Can't Cut Our Way to Net Zero
Even a perfectly decarbonized world has to pull carbon out of the air — and the sea. Welcome to carbon removal’s blue frontier! Part 1 of 7 For three decades, climate action has centered on a single imperative: stop emitting. Replace coal and gas with wind, solar, and nuclear. Electrify cars, heat, and industry. Wring waste out of the system. This shift from carbon-emitting to clean energy is the energy transition , and it is rightly the main event — the largest and most important lever we have. But the transition has one feature that's easy to gloss over: it takes time. The world does not move from fossil fuels to clean energy overnight. It happens over decades, as non-emissive technologies mature, become cost-effective, and are adopted at scale. Throughout that long shift, we keep burning fossil fuels — adding still more carbon dioxide to an atmosphere already carrying a century and a half of past emissions. That is the gap a second lever has to close. Alongside cutting e...