A one‐carbon path for fixing CO 2

Abstract

Our society relies on enormous amounts of chemical products— plastics, medicines, textiles, construction materials, flavors, and so on— most of which are synthesized from fossil resources, mainly oil. With growing concerns about global climate change and increasing demand for sustainable produc- tion schemes, it becomes clear that we need to wean ourselves from our dependency on fossil carbons. Ultimately, the only truly sustainable feedstocks for a circular carbon economy are CO2 and renewable energy [1]: The first supplies the elemental carbon, while the second provides the energy for converting CO2 into useful products. Such a circular, sustainable carbon economy has great potential for sequestering carbon from the atmosphere and thus, at least partially, counteracting the continuous release of greenhouse gases by human activities and the effects of global warming