Since 2010, the UN environmental organization UNEP has measured the emissions gap every year – the difference between countries' climate protection pledges and what is needed to limit global warming to 1.5ºC or at least below 2ºC.

UNEP's emissions gap reports are clear: climate policy requires greater ambition. This new study now explicitly applies this analytical concept to carbon dioxide removal (CDR)—the removal of the most important greenhouse gas, CO ₂ , from the atmosphere.

A study published in a journal Nature Climate Change led by Berlin's Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) and involved an international team of scientists. (University of East Anglia, more at phys.org)