Many companies are introducing new technologies in order to progress the RE industry. Chemicals giant BASF and glass and ceramics firm Corning are working with a team from New York’s Columbia University called Global Thermostat investigating technology that can work remotely to capture carbon emissions, not just capturing near a factory that emits tons of emissions regularly.
An advantage of air capture of carbon is that it would let less-developed countries in Africa and Latin America get into the carbon market as set up under the Kyoto Protocol, said Columbia University economist Graciela Chichilnisky.
Fast-developing countries like China and India have the advantage in this system. The more emissions they have to clean up, the more investment they can attract. But countries with low emissions, like many in Africa and Latin America, have little to sell on this market.
However, Chichilnisky said, if these less-developed countries got air capture technology, powered by renewable energy such as solar or wind, they could help bring about a net decrease in the concentration of atmospheric carbon.