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Statement - U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Last week, President Joe Biden invited countries to join the United States in participating in the Carbon Management Challenge, a global initiative to accelerate the deployment of carbon management technologies crucial to tackling climate change and limiting warming to 1.5° Celsius.
Carbon management refers to “carbon capture, use, and storage,” which consists of capturing carbon dioxide emissions at a source such as a power plant or industrial facility and “carbon dioxide removal,” which removes already emitted carbon directly from the atmosphere. In both approaches, the carbon is used and/or stored in a way that permanently removes it from the atmosphere.
In addition to systematic efforts to accelerate renewable energy deployment, expansion of low-carbon fuels and power, demand-side measures, improved efficiency, and non-CO2 emission reductions, carbon management plays a vital role in President Biden’s historic efforts to get the U.S. to 50% emissions reductions by 2030 and net zero emissions by 2050, to play our part in the global fight against climate change.
The Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) is playing a major role in investing more than $12 billion allocated by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law toward the research, development and commercial demonstration of carbon capture, direct air capture, and carbon conversion technologies and the buildout of carbon transport and storage infrastructure at multiple sites in multiple regions around the country. Other countries such as Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom are making proportionally bold commitments. But the need to deploy carbon management solutions requires even more ambitious commitments and in more countries.
The Carbon Management Challenge was launched by President Biden in recognition of this global imperative.
For the U.S. government, FECM is leading the way in developing carbon management solutions.
“Thanks to the President’s leadership and bipartisan support from Congress, we now have the world’s most robust federal funding and incentives and ambitious portfolio of research, development and demonstration portfolio for carbon management,” said Brad Crabtree, DOE’s Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy and Carbon Management. “U.S. leadership on carbon management, together with our partners around the world, will play an essential role in minimizing the environmental and climate impacts of fossil fuels and industrial processes while working to achieve net-zero emissions.”
“There are some very hard-to-decarbonize sectors of the economy that we are targeting, and it is clear that both carbon capture and carbon removal are needed to meet our net-zero goals,” said Jennifer Wilcox, DOE’s Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy and Carbon Management. “Our office is central for scaling up carbon management in the U.S. and across the globe as we fight to keep the planet below 1.5° Celsius.”
FECM is working closely with other U.S. government agencies to expedite this progress, and organizations across a wide spectrum of interests are supporting the Carbon Management Challenge, including the Clean Air Task Force, the Global CCS Institute, IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Program, Global Cement and Concrete Association, and the International Energy Forum, among others. The White House also released a fact sheet and Chair’s Summary that outlines steps the United States will take to address climate change.
Governments participating in the Carbon Management Challenge will announce contributing measures and specific goals at the next United Nations Conference of the Parties meeting, known as COP 28, later this year in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
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