The urgent need to address climate change has motivated global effort to rapidly decarbonize our world energy system which currently operates largely on fossil fuels. The challenges in doing so were outlined in the 2023 IPCC report, which articulated a two-part strategy: first, move away from fossil fuel use as rapidly as possible, primarily by electrification of large sectors of our economy; second, capture carbon from the atmosphere to reduce carbon emissions and thus mitigate warming associated with greenhouse gas emissions. As we do this, there will be large sectors of the economy that will remain difficult to decarbonize. For example, future long-haul aviation will continue to require use of hydrocarbon fuels. For such sectors there is a need to create a circular carbon economy in which use of hydrocarbon fuels is balanced by carbon capture and conversion.
