A new roadmap shows how the U.S. could be carbon-neutral by 2050
The United States can reduce its carbon footprint to zero by 2050 — but only if the country invests swiftly and deeply in emerging technologies that draw carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Federal funding of a range of carbon removal technologies, amounting to as much as $6 billion per year over the next 10 years, could put the U.S. on a path toward carbon neutrality by mid-century, according to a report released January 31 by the World Resources Institute, based in Washington, D.C. Being carbon-neutral means that the amount of U.S. emissions of carbon — primarily from burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas— is fully offset by the amount of carbon removed from the atmosphere. Navigating a realistic path to carbon neutrality is tricky, though, with many scientific, economic and political uncertainties surrounding the available technologies. But by combining many different strategies for carbon removal, the report envisions that the United States could ramp up to removing up to 2 metric...