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A thinktank has warned that carbon dioxide removal is crucial if the world is to meet its climate goals.
Markets for carbon offsets must be managed well. They will be crucial in limiting global warming to 1.5C according to scientific warnings. Energy Transitions CommissionThis is because switching to renewable energy alone won’t produce enough carbon savings. Other methods, such tree planting or carbon capture and storage, are also important.
Lord Adair Turner, the former head of the CBI and ex-chair of the UK government’s Committee on Climate Change and now chair of the Energy Transitions Commission, said carbon offsets and carbon markets were viewed with suspicion as they had been subject to mismanagement and abuse, but that well-functioning markets were possible.
“We would encourage the tidying up of what has been an area with loose standards and loose claims,” Turner said. “It would be very unfortunate to take the past problems of the carbon markets and use that to say we should not use them at all. This is a potentially large flow of money. So we should try to make sure that financial flow, which is valuable, is provided.”
The Guardian and others have discovered numerous instances of Carbon offsets offer no benefitsThese carbon markets are open to sale, and they are not formally regulated.
The Energy Transitions Commission report, entitled Mind the Gap: How Carbon Dioxide Removals Must Complement Deep Decarbonisation to Keep 1.5°C Alive, examined ways of removing carbon from the air after it is emitted, in contrast to renewable energy which removes the need to emit carbon dioxide in the first place. Technologies to remove carbon dioxide such as Carbon capture and storageThis requires liquefying of the gas and pumping into underground caverns. Use chemicals to capture carbon from the airThese are still quite expensive.
Turner warned that these technologies should not be seen as a “get out of jail free card”, which companies and others could rely on to avoid having to switch to renewable energy or finding other ways of cutting their greenhouse gas emissions. He stated that carbon removal would not suffice on its own. Green energy would be required to supplement it.
You can also grow trees instead of these technologies. They absorb carbon dioxide from air as they grow and are considered a key part any sustainable development plan. Strategy to address the climate crisis. Turner said that without carbon offsets, it will be difficult for forests to be funded.
The ETC report found that more than $200bn (£183bn) a year in total funding would be needed to remove enough carbon to stay within 1.5C, which over the next three decades would amount to about 0.25% of global GDP.
According to the ETC today, carbon offsets markets only reduce global emissions by 0.1%. According to the report, it is unlikely that companies would finance the required removals. Instead, government assistance would be required.
Turner stated that carbon markets need to be better regulated in order to ensure that the money they generate is going towards projects that actually reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This could be done by modeling the markets on financial trading and using modern monitoring techniques like satellites to verify that emissions have been reduced or that trees and forest are still standing.
The next installment of the landmark, four-part report by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the body of the world’s leading climate scientists, is to be published next month. This section of the sixth assessment report is the most recent comprehensive update of human knowledge on the climate crisis. It draws upon the work of thousands over the past eight year. Sections on carbon removal technologies will be covered.– The potential for all carbon-cutting techniques, from renewable energy to tree planting.
