Why Direct Air Capture Isn’t a Climate Solution for Manitoba

By James Wilt (Policy Development Manager for Climate Action Team Manitoba)

Summary

Direct air capture (DAC) is receiving considerable attention as a major carbon removal technology, with Manitoba Hydro projecting that it may account for almost 12 megatonnes (Mt) of removed CO2/yr by 2050—more than half of Manitoba’s total emissions in 2023. This briefing note examines the economics and feasibility of DAC, presenting five key concerns:

• • No large-scale proof of concept exists, with current projects small and plagued by
  • technical issues.
  • The technology has extremely high costs, relative to many other “safe-bet” climate mitigation options.
  • DAC consumes an enormous amount of energy, water and materials that will likely come at the expense of other uses and goals.
  • The technology’s economic feasibility relies on carbon offsets and commercial uses of CO2, undermining its contributions to rapid emissions reductions.
  • Public investment in DAC delays rapid and achievable decarbonization, consuming limited public resources and time to experiment with an unproven technology.

Recommendations

Based on these concerns, this briefing offers the following recommendations to policymakers and government officials:

• • No tax credits or other public subsidies should be provided to DAC companies.
  • Emissions modelling and planning should not include potential reductions from DAC until there are multiple large-scale projects with consecutive years’ worth of transparent data proving feasibility.
  • Governments should not use the eventual prospect of carbon capture as rationale to maintain or expand “hard-to-abate” but non-essential sectors such as air travel.
  • Investments in cheaper and readily deployable climate policies that accelerate the transformation and electrification of key sectors should be prioritized.