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 cost up to $164tn - equivalent to two years of the entire world's GDP, to capture and sequester the 1,172 gigatonnes of carbon required 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 generation" and then "electrify everything".