Prior to the industrial revolution there was about 250 ppm of CO2 in the air. It would take up to $ 164tn - equivalent to two years of the entire world 's GDP , to capture and sequester the 1,172 gigatonnes of carbon needed to take the planet back to pre - Industrial revolution levels , according to Michael Barnard . He also said it would take more than 24,000 years to sequester the amount of carbon produced in the past two centuries . Instead , he argues , the solution to the CO2 emissions problem is to " decarbonise electrical energy " and then " electrify everything " .
It would take up to $ 164tn - equivalent to two years of the entire world 's GDP , to capture and sequester the 1,172 gigatonnes of carbon needed to take the planet back to pre - Industrial revolution levels , according to Michael Barnard . He also said it would take more than 24,000 years to sequester the amount of carbon produced in the past two centuries . Instead , he argues , the solution to the CO2 emissions problem is to " decarbonise electrical energy " and then " electrify everything " .