Dominic Cummings backs £100,000,000 air-scrubber plan to remove CO2

Boris Johnson’s chief adviser Dominic Cummings is backing an experimental scheme to tackle climate change by sucking carbon dioxide out of the air.

Called direct air capture, it is technology which was first used on World War Two submarines. 

The air scrubbers use a chemical solution to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, which is then stored underground.

The CO2-laden solution would then be stored underground, reducing the amount of the climate change gas in the atmosphere.

Cummings has authorised £100 million from the Treasury to further develop the technology to enable Britain to reach its climate change requirements, according to The Times.

He has also won the support of Tim Leunig, the chancellor’s economic adviser, who is also backing it.

Cummings reportedly believes with significant early investment in the technology, Britain could become a world leader in the area.

The UK’s target is to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, and some experts think without efforts to remove existing CO2 from the atmosphere, it will be next to impossible to meet this goal.

But critics fear the direct air capture project could distract from more conventional and proven projects to cut emissions, such as the government’s pledge to spend £9 billion on insulating homes.

One Whitehall source claimed: ‘Dom had become obsessed by this. He’s the one who has been pushing it despite huge scepticism from officials. But he’s got his way.’

Research also suggests the technology is incredibly expensive and requires tremendous energy. For each one tonne of CO2 captured, it costs £500.

But experts believe that with government and private sector investment, these costs could be reduced to less than £100 per tonne.

Metro.co.uk has approached Number 10 for comment.  

Mr Cummings has been laying low since it emerged he drove 260 miles from London to his family home in Durham with his four-year-old and wife Mary Wakefield, who was suffering with Covid-19 symptoms, at the end of March.

At the time, government advice was to not travel except for essential reasons such as food or work and to self-isolate at home if they or a member of their household developed symptoms. He has denied any wrongdoing but has come under fierce criticism from the public.

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