Temporary carbon dioxide removal to offset short-lived climate forcers

Temporary carbon dioxide removal to offset short-lived climate forcers | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Temporary carbon dioxide removal to offset short-lived climate forcers Yue He, Keywan Riahi, Matthew J. Gidden, Shilong Piao, Tao Wang, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8806497/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The growing interest in temporary carbon dioxide removal (CDR) reflects concerns over the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of permanent solutions. However, efforts to integrate temporary CDR into climate policies have relied on flawed equivalency assumptions between temporary and permanent CDR that contradict physical climate science: temporary CDR cannot fully offset CO₂ emissions as permanent CDR can. Instead, we demonstrate that temporary CDR provides an effective mechanism for compensating non-CO 2 climate forcers. For instance, offsetting 1 kg CH 4 requires 41.3 kg CO 2 with 500-year temporary storage (such as biochar) or 716 kg CO 2 with 20-year storage (such as bioplastics). This approach is particularly effective for short-lived species because their compensation ratios remain stable across different assessment timeframes, providing robust metrics for climate policy applications. We identify a critical lifetime threshold that separates short-lived and long-lived species for temporary CDR applications, with implementation requiring differentiated reporting of these categories in climate policies. This framework creates a valuable opportunity for sectors like agriculture, where non-CO 2 emissions dominate and direct emission reductions remain extremely challenging. Climate Analysis and Modeling temporary carbon dioxide removal short-lived climate forcers climate mitigation Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Supplementary Files HeSICDR20260203.docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8806497","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":586940726,"identity":"0ee487f8-a7f4-4e97-bde4-92d857681f1b","order_by":0,"name":"Yue He","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Institute of Carbon Neutrality, Peking University, Beijing, China","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yue","middleName":"","lastName":"He","suffix":""},{"id":586940727,"identity":"fb9fb759-7b94-4d7e-a9dd-93763a9fc119","order_by":1,"name":"Keywan Riahi","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Laxenburg, Austria","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Keywan","middleName":"","lastName":"Riahi","suffix":""},{"id":586940728,"identity":"ab2d75c8-4e84-430f-8d20-c9245e4e287e","order_by":2,"name":"Matthew J. 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However, efforts to integrate temporary CDR into climate policies have relied on flawed equivalency assumptions between temporary and permanent CDR that contradict physical climate science: temporary CDR cannot fully offset CO₂ emissions as permanent CDR can. Instead, we demonstrate that temporary CDR provides an effective mechanism for compensating non-CO\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003e climate forcers. For instance, offsetting 1 kg CH\u003csub\u003e4\u003c/sub\u003e requires 41.3 kg CO\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003e with 500-year temporary storage (such as biochar) or 716 kg CO\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003e with 20-year storage (such as bioplastics). This approach is particularly effective for short-lived species because their compensation ratios remain stable across different assessment timeframes, providing robust metrics for climate policy applications. 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