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Wim Carton

Wim Carton

Senior Lecturer, Docent

Wim Carton

Seize the Means of Carbon Removal: The Political Economy of Direct Air Capture

Author

  • Andreas Malm
  • Wim Carton

Summary, in English

The left must confront the politics of removing carbon from the atmosphere – a topic rapidly making its way to the top of the climate agenda. We here examine the technology of direct air capture, tracing its intellectual origins and laying bare the political economy of its current manifestations. We find a space crowded with ideology-laden metaphors, ample fossil-capital entanglements and bold visions for a new, ethereal frontier of capital accumulation. These diversions must be cut short if a technology with the capacity to help repair at least some climate damage is to be of any use. Only socialising the means of removal will allow this to happen.

Department/s

  • LUCSUS (Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies)
  • Human Ecology

Publishing year

2021

Language

English

Pages

3-48

Publication/Series

Historical Materialism

Volume

29

Issue

1

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Brill

Topic

  • Human Geography

Keywords

  • carbon removal
  • negative emissions
  • direct air capture
  • climate-change mitigation
  • political economy
  • carbon capture and usage

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1569-206X