Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge shovels earth during a Tree Planting Ceremony as her husband Prince William, Duke of Cambridge looks on at Rideau Hall on july 02, 2011 in Ottawa, Canada.

A new report from Oxford University says that the most promising “Negative Emissions Technologies” (NETs) for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in the near term are also among the simplest: afforestation, soil carbon improvements and biochar. These are considered “No Regret” technologies because they offer co-benefits such as improved soil vitality, low cost, and minimal or no technology risk.

Afforestation is the practice of expanding the ranges and densities of forests. Biochar is a form of charcoal buried in soil as a soil enhancer, and soil carbon improvements involve creation of additional topsoil through improved agricultural practices.

Other Negative Emissions Technologies such as bioenergy, CCS, direct air capture and ocean liming have great potential in the long term, but require substantial technology development and have great uncertainty over their technical viability.

“Successful NET deployment would not mean business as usual for carbon-intensive assets… NETs should not be seen as a deus ex machina that will ‘save the day’… It is clear that very large scale negative emissions deployment, if it were possible, is not in any sense preferable to timely decarbonisation of the energy and agricultural systems.”