Where (and what) in the world is DAC?
Tags: Carbon Emissions, Climate, Climate Action, Direct Air Capture

View the DAC MAPP here.

A rapidly growing field

Direct air capture (DAC) is a young but fast-evolving domain, and one that will continue to undergo significant, continuous transformation in the immediate and long-term future.

Today, this change is being driven by a growing cast of global actors in the private sector, civil society, and research spheres. The sum total of their diverse and parallel efforts on the ground — present and future, incremental and disruptive — are collectively being made in service of one epically ambitious but simple objective: the massive acceleration of real-world DAC deployment in a timeframe that matters to the climate crisis. By mid-century, we will need to be drawing down 10 gigatons of CO2 per year. To understand how daunting this task is, consider that all of the automobiles in America produce about 2 gigatons of CO2 per year.

Since launching in 2015, Carbon180 has been instrumental in advancing the DAC sector’s rapid emergence on the world stage. Along the way, through our research and advocacy, we have endeavored to share this story with an increasingly curious and invested public. In keeping with this commitment, today we’re excited to launch a new resource that we have developed to help our community track, measure, and make sense of the global ecosystem that is behind the rise of DAC.

A snapshot of the DAC MAPP.

Introducing the DAC MAPP

The DAC Map of Actors, Plants, and Projects (MAPP) is a simple, regularly updated visual tool that presents a snapshot of not just the who and what of the global DAC sector, but also the where and the when. Built and maintained on the Carto spatial analytics platform, DAC MAPP provides a geo-inventory of key indicators of direct air capture’s real-world footprint and advancement. This includes not only many of the organizations and firms that are actively catalyzing DAC’s progress through market activity, research, and advocacy, but also actual DAC infrastructure operating in the physical world, both in the form of demonstration projects and fully commercial facilities.

Every actor, plant, and project featured on the MAPP includes background information that can be explored with just a click. Carbon180 will continue to update information and new developments in real time, ensuring a snapshot of the field that is as accurate as possible and relaying changes in:

1. How much DAC capacity is being added in the world,

2. What CO2-based products and services are driving demand and growth, and

3. How the rate of addition tracks with where the sector actually needs to be in order to play a meaningful role in meeting net-zero targets and addressing legacy emissions.

These essential metrics are captured in easy-to-use graphs at the bottom of the MAPP page.

The sum total of their diverse and parallel efforts on the ground — present and future, incremental and disruptive — are collectively being made in service of one epically ambitious but simple objective: the massive acceleration of real-world DAC deployment in a timeframe that matters to the climate crisis.

Be a part of it all

We hope the MAPP inspires excitement about the momentum behind DAC and a drive to push for the equitable and durable scale-up of this technology over the coming decades. If you have any projects or initiatives that should be added to the MAPP, you can reach us at hello@carbon180.org.