Sustainability limits needed for CO2 removal

Sustainability limits needed for CO2 removal

2024 | Alexandra Deprez, Paul Leadley, Kate Dooley, Phil Williamson, Wolfgang Cramer, Jean-Pierre Gattuso, Aleksandar Rankovic, Eliot Carlson, Felix Creutzig
The article "Sustainability Limits Needed for CO2 Removal" by Alexandra Deprez et al. highlights the critical need to assess the sustainability risks associated with large-scale carbon dioxide removal (CDR) strategies. The authors argue that relying on CDR to avoid steep greenhouse gas (GHG) emission cuts today is risky and can lead to significant biodiversity loss, food insecurity, and other social and environmental issues. They propose three key approaches to address these sustainability concerns: 1. **Estimating Sustainable CDR Budgets**: Based on socioecological thresholds, the authors estimate the sustainable budget for CDR, which is significantly lower than the technical and economic potentials reported by the IPCC. They find that high-risk levels for bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) and nature-based CDR start well below the IPCC's mean technical potential. 2. **Identifying Viable Mitigation Pathways**: The authors examine the contribution of CDR to mitigation scenarios in the IPCC's illustrative mitigation pathways (IMPs) and find that a high proportion of scenarios rely on risky levels of CDR that do not account for sustainability limits. They recommend that policy-makers and researchers prioritize research on a sustainable and realistic CDR budget that considers ecological, biophysical, and social constraints. 3. **Reframing CDR Governance**: The authors advocate for a new governance framework that targets limited sustainable CDR supply to the most legitimate uses, such as counterbalancing truly residual emissions. They call for high integrity standards and regulations for CDR providers and purchasers, and for countries to maximize emissions cuts while minimizing CDR. The article emphasizes the urgency of addressing these sustainability issues to ensure that CDR supplements, rather than substitutes, for necessary deep and immediate emission reductions.The article "Sustainability Limits Needed for CO2 Removal" by Alexandra Deprez et al. highlights the critical need to assess the sustainability risks associated with large-scale carbon dioxide removal (CDR) strategies. The authors argue that relying on CDR to avoid steep greenhouse gas (GHG) emission cuts today is risky and can lead to significant biodiversity loss, food insecurity, and other social and environmental issues. They propose three key approaches to address these sustainability concerns: 1. **Estimating Sustainable CDR Budgets**: Based on socioecological thresholds, the authors estimate the sustainable budget for CDR, which is significantly lower than the technical and economic potentials reported by the IPCC. They find that high-risk levels for bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) and nature-based CDR start well below the IPCC's mean technical potential. 2. **Identifying Viable Mitigation Pathways**: The authors examine the contribution of CDR to mitigation scenarios in the IPCC's illustrative mitigation pathways (IMPs) and find that a high proportion of scenarios rely on risky levels of CDR that do not account for sustainability limits. They recommend that policy-makers and researchers prioritize research on a sustainable and realistic CDR budget that considers ecological, biophysical, and social constraints. 3. **Reframing CDR Governance**: The authors advocate for a new governance framework that targets limited sustainable CDR supply to the most legitimate uses, such as counterbalancing truly residual emissions. They call for high integrity standards and regulations for CDR providers and purchasers, and for countries to maximize emissions cuts while minimizing CDR. The article emphasizes the urgency of addressing these sustainability issues to ensure that CDR supplements, rather than substitutes, for necessary deep and immediate emission reductions.
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Understanding Sustainability limits needed for CO2 removal