SCALING CARBON REMOVAL IN THE U.S.

The United States needs to remove approximately 2 GtCO2 per year by 2050 to achieve climate neutrality, given that the U.S. Mid-century Strategy for Deep Decarbonization leaves roughly 2.55 GtCO2 of gross annual emissions unaddressed and land sinks are projected to decline. To reach this target, the document argues that an "all-of-the-above" portfolio—combining natural pathways like tree restoration and agricultural soil carbon with technological approaches like direct air capture—is the most effective, risk-averse, and cheapest strategy, yielding the highest cumulative carbon removal by 2050.

• To achieve climate neutrality, the U.S. must offset approximately 2 GtCO2 of remaining net annual emissions by 2050. This is based on the U.S. Mid-century Strategy for Deep Decarbonization leaving about 2.55 GtCO2 of gross annual emissions unaddressed, while the current land sink of roughly 720 MtCO2 per year is expected to decrease due to forest conversion, disturbance, and aging forests.
• A U.S. target of removing 2 GtCO2 per year by 2050 would be a significant contribution toward the global requirement to scale carbon removal to between 5 and 15 GtCO2 per year by the same date.
• An "all-of-the-above" portfolio of carbon removal is the most effective strategy, providing the highest cumulative removal through 2050, the lowest cost (assuming direct air capture is the most expensive), and the lowest risk by diversifying pathways.
• Natural carbon capture pathways alone are insufficient to meet the 2 GtCO2 per year target. While technology-only or direct-air-capture-only portfolios could eventually reach this level by 2050, they would result in significantly lower cumulative removal because of the time required to scale the technology.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). SCALING CARBON REMOVAL IN THE U.S. https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/carbonshot-scaling-carbon-removal-us.pdf

Chicago

World Resources Institute. SCALING CARBON REMOVAL IN THE U.S. n.d. https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/carbonshot-scaling-carbon-removal-us.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=SCALING CARBON REMOVAL IN THE U.S. |url=https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/carbonshot-scaling-carbon-removal-us.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendscaling, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{SCALING CARBON REMOVAL IN THE U.S.}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/carbonshot-scaling-carbon-removal-us.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }