About this series

What is the carbon budget?

The capacity of the Earth’s atmosphere to safely hold excess carbon without too much warming is limited. The situation is growing more urgent. Even after the December 2015 Climate Conference in Paris, it is unlikely that global economies will reduce carbon emissions quickly enough to achieve the goal of limiting the temperature increase to two degrees Celsius.

Unless that pace is dramatically accelerated, the planet will almost certainly exceed its “carbon budget” within two decades., This concern has led the International Panel on Climate Change to conclude that negative emissions technologies, which removes CO₂ from the air, will be needed to meet climate goals. However, NETs are still in the research, development or demonstration stages of commercialization and may not be ready in time, or feasible at the necessary scale.

Arizona State University and the ASU Center for Negative Carbon Emissions is spearheading a campaign to develop a coalition of influential research, policy and potential funding organizations to speed the development and commercialization of technologies that can balance the carbon budget and open discussions about supportive policies and economic incentives. Researchers at ASU are tackling energy-related challenges ranging from renewable energy alternatives to the effects of climate change on the population. Our research combines ASU’s strengths in use-inspired energy resource science that sits at the interface of policy making affecting real change in the global race to energy efficiency and sustainability.