Shaken Not Burned

Highlighting changemakers and solutions

Glossary - Direct Air Capture

Direct air capture (DAC) is a carbon dioxide removal technology that extracts CO₂ directly from the air using an engineered system. Unlike carbon capture and storage (CCS), which captures emissions from specific point sources (such as factories), DAC takes CO2 straight from the atmosphere. Large fans pull in ambient air and push it through a filter, usually using a solvent or sorbent that extracts the CO2. The remaining air can then be released while the separated CO2 is permanently stored or converted into useful products. DAC can be used alongside other methods and technologies to mitigate CO2 emissions and prevent them from causing further damage.

Busting a myth - New technologies will save us from climate change

While new technologies will undoubtedly play a critical part in tackling climate change, there is no such thing as a ‘silver-bullet’ solution, a simple option that will solve all our problems. 

DAC is a perfect example as, despite the success of Climeworks and others, it remains highly costly and extremely resource-intensive. It is far from being deployed at a meaningful scale, and there are doubts as to whether it will ever be economically viable.

The same could be said for many other technologies, such as hydrogen heating, sustainable fuels or electric vehicles. We must do what we can to move these technologies forward, but we cannot rely on them to fix our mess.

Furthermore, centuries worth of anthropogenic emissions have already done serious damage to the climate that cannot be reversed.  Critical tipping points have been breached, and some degree of change is already locked in. We are already seeing the deadly impacts, and we cannot afford to keep making things worse in the hope that future technologies will answer our problems.

What we’ve been reading this week

· The world’s 60 largest banks have reportedly given almost $7 trillion to fossil fuels companies since the signing of the Paris Agreement. Despite many of them having made net zero pledges, $705 billion was awarded last year, almost half of which went towards new expansion. This research highlights the importance of transparency and accountability in the financial system, while also demonstrating the chronically short-sited approach of big banks. Fossil fuels may be profitable now, but they have no place in a sustainable future.

· President Biden has introduced a suite of new measures against Chinese imports, supposedly to support domestic manufacturing and development in the US. But by quadrupling the tariff rate on EVs, doubling the rate on solar cells and almost tripling the rate on Li-ion batteries, he is making it harder and more expensive for US projects to come together cohesively. Many project developers rely on cheap importer modules to get solar farms deployed and the first set of tariffs introduced in 2012 did little to spur US manufacturing. As American industries struggle with solar costs averaging around 50% higher than the rest of the world, Chinese products will remain available to the rest of the world at a low cost, suggesting that Biden’s protectionist measures may turn out to be an own-goal.

· Of more than 2,000 UK SMEs surveyed by BT, Small Business Britain and Oxford Brookes Business School, 64% say that they need more support in implementing sustainability strategies. Financial constraints were the main cause for concern, particularly those caused by recent economic conditions. Given that SMEs make up over 99% of the UK’s business population and around half of its private sector’s annual turnover, the country’s climate goals will not be reached if SMEs do not get help. Furthermore, larger businesses whose supply chains are littered with smaller partners will fail to reach their Scope 3 targets.

· The European Securities and Markets Authority has issued its final guidelines on investment funds using ESG or sustainability-related terms in their names. This is intended to help protect investors against misunderstanding or misrepresentation of sustainability claims. ESMA has established a minimum threshold of 80% of investments that should meet environmental, social characteristics or sustainable investment objectives. The Guidelines also apply exclusion criteria for different terms used in fund names. Under “Environmental”, “Impact” and “sustainability”-related terms, exclusions are to be made according to the rules applicable to Paris-aligned Benchmarks (PAB). While for those investments moving towards a net zero, nature positive future the terms “Transition, “Social” and “Governance”-related terms, exclusions should be according to the rules applicable to Climate Transition Benchmarks (CTB). The criteria are to be applied three months after publication on the ESMA site.

· UKSIF has warned that without action, the UK’s world-leading position on sustainable finance is under threat. In its latest report, Financing the Future: Financial Services Report, UKSIF presents a range of regulatory and policy changes that could help re-establish the UK as the world’s leading sustainable finance hub. In particular, UKSIF is calling for the UK to play a global leadership role on TNFD by encouraging a broader group of countries such as the G20 and developing countries to engage with the TNFD and endorse its recommendations. The UK, alongside other governments and bodies, must now over time adopt the framework’s recommendations and principles into existing mandatory corporate reporting requirements, which UKSIF says could be achieved through the work of the ISSB.