Scaling up CO2 removal is crucial to achieve net-zero targets and limit global warming. Understanding public perception of large-scale carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is vital to avoid opposition that could slow down development, investments, and deployment.
Using Twitter data from 2010 to 2022, we analysed attention and sentiments towards ten CDR methods. Our study provides up-to-date time series evidence complementing survey studies, capturing the opinions of users with knowledge or awareness of emerging CDR methods.
Attention towards CDR has grown exponentially, particularly in recent years. Overall, the discourse on CDR has become more positive, except for BECCS. Conventional CDR methods are the most discussed and receive more positive sentiments. We examined three user types, each with varying levels of involvement in the discourse. Infrequent users (assumed less familiar) pay more attention to methods with biological sinks, while frequent users (assumed more familiar) focus more on novel CDR methods.