Climate experts agree the only way to meet the Paris climate accord’s vital reduction in the planet’s rising temperature by 2050 is to shrink its carbon footprint – and corralling atmospheric CO₂ is essential.

Carbon capture is critical for solving #ClimateChange. How it works: https://t.co/nOHeIoDzn3 #CCUS pic.twitter.com/1N9IvpDUFN

— Sec. Ernest Moniz (@EnergySecMoniz) February 13, 2016

To do that, we must lock away nearly 30 times more CO₂ than we’re sequestering today. That means government and businesses will have to work together to deliver the carbon solutions our environment deserves.

We can achieve that goal – and also boost domestic oil production the world economy needs without damaging the environment. But to do that, Congress must act now.

Lawmakers must give the same industrial carbon credit used in enhanced oil recovery, or EOR, as the credit given for storing the CO₂ safely underground.

For half a century, it has been shown that injecting compressed CO₂ sucked from the atmosphere into old oil fields rejuvenates them to produce stranded oil reserves. Congress has encouraged this EOR production. The result: the largest industry today that sequesters CO₂ while also producing net-negative carbon-emitting oil.

Specifically, the Senate must increase the House-passed 45Q credit value for captured CO₂ used in EOR to the same level it provides for captured CO₂ taken to dedicated storage: $85/metric ton for both.

If we do this, we can – at the same time – boost domestic oil production the world needs without damaging the environment and progressing on our multi-years-long path to create carbon solutions for our net zero and emissions goals. Why? Because large-scale industrial CO₂ storage sites plus new CO₂ pipelines will take some time to build out. But CO₂-related EOR projects are a nearer-term way for large-scale carbon capture while also delivering needed world oil supplies that are net carbon negative.

If we do this, we can make the progress we require on our multi-year-long path to meet our net zero and emissions goals.

Here’s the blunt truth in our fight against climate change – and it springs from global climate change experts and the International Energy Agency: The world cannot meet the Paris climate goal of 1.5 degrees Celcius reduction in rising temperatures by 2050 without locking away 1.15 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide every year. That’s nearly 30-times more CO₂ than we’re managing to sequester today.

It all depends on shrinking our carbon footprint, and corralling atmospheric CO₂ is essential. To reach net zero, we absolutely must speed up developing and deploying emerging technologies that take carbon and inject it permanently underground. If we do this, we can – at the same time – boost domestic oil production the world needs without damaging the environment and progressing on our multi-years-long path to meet our net zero and emissions goals.

Sounds crazy, but it’s not. What we’re talking about is squeezing net-negative emission oil from fissures deep underground by pumping carbon dioxide into the country’s countless existing oil wells. The process uses tertiary recovery to maximize production for the remaining oil in place. It’s called “enhanced oil recovery,” or EOR, and before now, that oil was too hard to get to but now it can be extracted out.

EOR holds several distinctions. It’s the largest industrial use of CO₂ in the marketplace and the only carbon sequestration industry of scale. The production process also creates a net-negative barrel of oil. This happens when CO₂ is reinjected after production in what the industry calls a “closed loop” process, permanently storing these emissions. The oil and gas industry is a leader in this technology and is working on using existing wells and other storage sites for CO₂ containment in geologic formations around the country.

Around the world, 500,000 barrels of oil are produced using EOR, roughly 20 percent of total oil production, according to the International Energy Agency’s new global database. These barrels help to further reduce emissions for industries like aviation, trucking, and maritime that rely on a liquid molecule of fuel to operate.

Congress has encouraged this EOR production. The result: the largest industry today that sequesters CO₂ while also producing net-negative carbon-emitting oil. However, to make CO₂-EOR economically feasible to undertake such inventive climate cleanup will require Congress must give the same industrial carbon credit used in EOR, as the credit given for storing the CO₂ safely underground.

Specifically, the Senate must increase the House-passed 45Q credit value for captured CO₂ used in EOR to the same level it provides for captured CO₂ taken to dedicated storage: $85/metric ton for both.

If we do this, we can – at the same time – boost domestic oil production the world needs without damaging the environment and progressing on our multi-years-long path to meet our net zero and emissions targets under the Paris climate goals. Why? Because large-scale industrial CO₂ storage sites plus new CO₂ pipelines will take some time to build out. But CO₂-related EOR projects are a nearer-term mitigation strategy and a technology push program that will incentivize research and development that could commercialize carbon capture on a large scale. Not only does EOR from existing wells help us deliver needed world oil supplies that are net carbon negative to the public and hard-to-decarbonize sectors, but it helps us start reducing emissions now.

If we do this, we can make the progress we require on our multi-year-long path to meet our net zero and emissions goals.