These crazy projects to slow down global warming

The Orca facility, by the Swiss start-up Climeworks, is the world’s largest site for capturing CO2 from the atmosphere. Cover Images/ABACA

DECRYPTION – To compensate for the global increase in CO₂ and avoid the worst, the temptation is great to turn to so-called unconventional technical solutions.

For several years, humanity has been engaged in a race to try to stop climate change, caused by emissions of greenhouse gases, CO₂ on your mind. But, despite the efforts launched in many countries to replace fossil fuels with low-carbon energy sources (nuclear, renewables, etc.), global warming is accelerating, and threatens to have increasingly catastrophic consequences for populations. and ecosystems.

In this context, the temptation is great to avoid the worst to turn to so-called unconventional technical solutions, gathered under the name of geo-engineering. Two approaches coexist. The first is to try to reduce the level of CO₂ in the atmosphere, capturing it by natural or artificial means. The second approach, solar geoengineering, aims to lower global temperatures by reflecting some of the solar radiation back into space.