I know that there is ‘legacy carbon’ in the atmosphere that needs to get removed but why aren’t we leveraging carbon capture as part of industrial processes (e.g. at the factory’s smoke stack, for example). Or maybe we are already?
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Many of the most carbon polluting industries, are already some of the most expensive to run, when compared to a newer green option.
Solar & wind power is dramatically cheaper than coal power, even before they add-on expensive carbon capture.
Green steel, made with Hydrogen & Arc furnaces, are expected to be cheaper than steel made with Coal. Cheaper Before adding the expensive carbon capture.
The same may be true even with cement manufacturing.
There are plenty of comments here saying “because’ it’s expensive”. But my point is even more direct – These polluting industries are inefficient uses of capital even BEFORE they have to build expensive carbon-capturing systems. The carbon-capture system only makes them even less efficient uses of capital.
We probably will see carbon-capturing at “smokestacks” of industries that truly cannot be made green. But to-date, there are economical paths to cleaner industry which actually IMPROVE the economics of the industry for all of the most significant carbon producers.
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