The Duality of Carbon Dioxide Removal: Climate Solution and the Reproduction of Structural Inequalities

Abstract

Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) technologies have transitioned from a marginal concept to a central pillar of international climate mitigation scenarios, most notably those of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that limit global warming to 1.5°C. While these technologies promise to counterbalance hard-to-abate emissions and potentially restore atmospheric CO₂ levels, their rapid ascendancy warrants critical social scientific scrutiny. This article argues that CDR possesses a fundamental duality: it is simultaneously a potentially indispensable climate solution and a powerful vector for the reproduction of structural inequalities. Through a systematic, interdisciplinary analysis bridging energy justice and political ecology frameworks, we deconstruct this duality. The article first provides a typology of CDR approaches, from nature-based solutions like Afforestation/Reforestation (AR) to more technologically complex methods like Direct Air Capture with Carbon Storage (DACCS) and Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS). It then analyzes the socio-political dimensions of CDR deployment, focusing on three core axes of potential injustice: (1) the distributional inequities in the siting of projects and their localized environmental, land, and resource impacts; (2) the procedural injustices in decision-making processes that often exclude marginalized communities; and (3) the recognitional injustices that arise when CDR overlooks diverse forms of knowledge, values, and worldviews. The analysis reveals that without deliberate and transformative governance, the large-scale deployment of CDR risks reinforcing existing global and local power hierarchies, creating new "sacrifice zones," and diverting attention and resources from urgent decarbonization of energy systems. The article concludes that a just CDR pathway is not inevitable but must be actively constructed through anticipatory, participatory, and equity-centered policies that prioritize frontline communities, address root causes of inequality, and subordinate CDR to a overarching strategy of rapid emissions reduction.