Figure 3 shows the CO2 emissions of the 17 countries and their CAGR for the period 1990 and 2016. The countries that accounted for the highest growth in CO2 emissions between 1990 and 2016 are China with 6.17%, India with 5.5%, Saudi Arabia with 5%, Iran with 4.8%, Brazil with 4%, and Turkey with 3.7%. The countries that have managed to rein in their emissions growth are UK with −1.16%, Italy with −1.1%, France with −0.88%, the USA with 0.33%, Japan with 0.41%, and Canada with 0.9%.

Delaying carbon dioxide removal in the European Union puts climate targets at risk. Under an indicative target of −50 Gt of net CO2 by 2100, delayed CDR would cost an extra of 0.12−0.19 trillion EUR per year of inaction. Moreover, postponing CDR beyond mid-century would substantially reduce the removal potential to almost half (−35.60 Gt CO2) due to the underused biomass and land resources and the maximum technology diffusion speed.

For example, reaching carbon neutrality by 2100 by deploying BECCS and DACCS from 2020 would cost 22.8 trillion EUR2015 (in the range 18.6–26.6, uncertainty analysis in the Supplementary Tables 43–50), and 24.1 when starting in 2075 (18.2–29.5), while it would become infeasible when starting after 2080.

Revealed: the 20 firms behind a third of all carbon emissions https://perma.cc/5BQ3-BH8G