World has missed chance to avoid dangerous global warming – unless we start geo-engineering the planet

The world has missed the chance to avoid dangerous global warming – unless we start geo-engineering the atmosphere by removing greenhouse gases, according to new research.

Planet Earth - do we resort to geo-engineering?

Scientists used computer models to assess what needs to be done to restrict global warming to between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius, the limits adopted by the Paris Agreement on climate change.

They found that the world was likely to overshoot this temperature but could bring it back down to 1.2C by the end of this century by using techniques to remove carbon dioxide from the air.

Giant biological machines could be created to do this by growing vegetation which absorbs carbon, then burning the resulting biomass in power stations that capture the emissions.

Read Ian Johnston’s story in the Independent - “World has missed chance to avoid dangerous global warming – unless we start geo-engineering the planet.”