Mining technologies could capture ‘billions of tonnes of CO2 per year,’ says UBC prof

Image credit: Gerd Altmann (Pixabay)

(mining.com) - The world needs to limit global temperature increases to between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius by the end of this century to avoid devastating climate change, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations body that provides policymakers with scientific information about climate change. Atmospheric concentrations of CO2 are now well over 400 parts per million and global emissions are currently around 36 billion tonnes of CO2 per year. With emissions expected to increase, most experts believe that the 2 degrees Celsius warming target will not be met. To stabilize the global climate, they say, we will need to achieve net negative emissions by pulling more CO2 out of the atmosphere than we emit. The mining industry could play a significant role in helping to achieve this, according to Greg Dipple, a professor in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences and a member of the Mineral Deposit Research Unit at the University of British Columbia (UBC).