Airbus and seven airlines announced Monday that they have signed a letter of intent to buy 400,000 tons of CO2 credits that will be captured in the air and stored underground in the United States. The aircraft manufacturer, along with Air Canada, Air France-KLM, easyJet, IAG, Latam, Lufthansa and Virgin Atlantic have entered into this partnership with the firm 1PointFive, according to a press release.
This company begins the construction of a capture and storage site in the Permian basin of Texas. It will be operational in 2024, its president Steve Belly said during a press conference. With a storage capacity of one million tons of CO2, it will be the world’s largest CO2 storage site, “the first on a megaton scale,” according to him.
The technology, known as Direct Air Carbon Capture and Storage (DACCS), aims to capture CO2 in the air using powerful fans, powered by electricity from solar panels, and store it at a depth of almost 2000 meters. “Direct carbon capture from the air is an emerging technology with huge potential,” said Jane Ashton, easyJet’s sustainability manager, saying it “will be a vital part of our journey to net zero.”
Goal: zero net CO2 emissions by 2050
The world aviation sector, responsible for 2 to 3% of global CO2 emissions, pledged last year to achieve net zero CO2 emissions by 2050 in order to respect the Paris Agreement that supposedly limits global warming to +1, 5°C To achieve this, it relies on technological innovations and the gradual introduction of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) capable of reducing CO2 emissions by 80% compared to kerosene throughout its use cycle.
“There is no miracle solution to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050,” said Nicolas Chrétien, director of “Sustainability and Environment” at Airbus. “There will be residual emissions that will need to be removed permanently, that’s what carbon sequestration is all about,” he explained. The C02 capture and storage technique is criticized by some of the main NGOs against global warming.
Source: BFM TV
