Geoengineering

Though technically a form of geoengineering,direct air capture(DAC) is rarely referred to as such, given that it is significantly less risky than other methods of this approach. Interest in this technology has been rapidly growing, with venture capitalistfundingfor carbon capture and storage initiatives totaling $1.8 billion by the end of the first quarter of 2023. In August 2023, the U.S. Department of Energy announced that it would invest $1.2 billion towards developingregional DAC hubsacross the country. Another form of geoengineering - solar radiation management (SRM) - is more controversial, and encapsulates several technologies that reduce the amount of sunlight that reaches the ground.Methodsproposed to achieve this include marine cloud brightening through aerosols, cirrus cloud thinning to permit more heat escape from Earth, and sun shields in space and stratospheric aerosol scattering in the upper atmosphere that would reflect light away from Earth. Though the indirect effects of SRM are not well established, both the Biden administration and the EU havesignaledthat they are open to the prospect of studying SRM, and over the past three years NOAA has invested $22 million intoSRM research.