Congress recently approved at least $35 million for research and development of direct air capture technology and $60 million overall for research into carbon dioxide removal technologies. This is the first time direct air capture—a type of technology that pulls greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere for storage elsewhere—has received this level of dedicated federal R&D funding in the US.
It’s an important step in the right direction given that most scenario models for how we can avoid the worst impacts of climate change require removing lots of carbon from the air.
