The Real Cost of CO₂ Is Not Measured Only in Dollars per Tonne

The Real Cost of CO₂ Is Not Measured Only in Dollars per Tonne Clean Energy and Water Technologies Pty Ltd (CEWT) We often discuss carbon dioxide in terms of tonnes, carbon prices and the cost of capture. But perhaps we are measuring the wrong cost. Around the world, communities are experiencing extreme heat, wildfires, floods, droughts and destructive storms. These events take lives, destroy homes and infrastructure, disrupt businesses and agriculture, and place enormous pressure on governments and communities. The World Meteorological Organization reports that 2015–2025 were the hottest 11 years on record. In 2025 alone, extreme weather affected millions of people and caused billions of dollars in economic losses. And the extremes have continued into 2026. There is another way of understanding the scale of the problem: look at what it takes to reverse the chemistry after carbon has been emitted. In developing Carbon Recycling Technology (CRT), we have been examining what happens when captured CO₂ is not simply stored, but is converted back into a useful carbon-based energy carrier. The engineering lesson is striking. CO₂ is carbon in a highly oxidised state. To convert that carbon back into methane requires hydrogen. Producing low-carbon hydrogen requires substantial energy. CO₂ must also be captured, purified, compressed and processed. In other words, releasing carbon through combustion is relatively easy. Putting the carbon back is expensive. That tells us something fundamental about climate change. The value of preventing additional geological carbon from entering the atmosphere may be much greater than the carbon price alone suggests. And the real cost is certainly greater than the cost of the equipment required to capture it. The ultimate price can be measured in damaged homes, destroyed infrastructure, lost productivity, disrupted food and water systems — and, most importantly, human lives. This is why I believe we need to think differently about carbon. CO₂ itself is not the enemy. Carbon is one of the fundamental building blocks of our economy and our lives. The problem is continuously extracting additional geological carbon, using its stored chemical energy once, and releasing the resulting CO₂ into the atmosphere. What if, instead, we treated carbon as an inventory? Capture it. Recycle it. Combine it with low-carbon hydrogen. Use it again. The engineering is challenging, and the energy requirement is substantial. But that difficulty itself teaches us an important lesson: “When we calculate how expensive it is to recycle carbon after combustion, we begin to understand how valuable it is not to waste carbon to the atmosphere in the first place.” Climate change has a price. Engineering can put numbers around part of that price. But the lives, homes and communities affected by a warming world remind us that its full cost cannot be expressed in dollars per tonne of CO₂. Context and references • World Meteorological Organization (WMO): State of the Global Climate and related climate updates. WMO reports that 2015–2025 were the hottest 11 years on record and that 2025 was approximately 1.43°C above the 1850–1900 average. • Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): Sixth Assessment Report. The IPCC concludes that losses and damages increase with every increment of global warming. • WMO Atlas of Mortality and Economic Losses from Weather, Climate and Water Extremes: reported that weather-, climate- and water-related disasters caused more than 2 million deaths and trillions of US dollars in economic losses over 1970–2021. Note: Climate change does not mean that every individual disaster is caused solely by global warming. Scientific assessments show that human-caused warming is increasing the risks and severity of many climate and weather extremes.