Carbon capture and storage (CCS) has emerged rapidly as a crucial technological option for decarbonising electricity supply and mitigating climate change. Great hopes are being pinned on this new technology but it is also facing growing scepticism and criticism. This book is the first to bring together the full range of social and policy issues surrounding CCS shedding new light on this potentially vital technology and its future. The book covers many crucial topics including the roles and positions that different publics, NGOs, industry, political parties and media are taking up; the way CCS is organised, supported and regulated; how CCS is being debated and judged; how innovation, demonstration and learning are occurring and being conceptualised and promoted; and the role of CCS in the transition to a low carbon energy future. The authors draw on a variety of approaches, concepts, methods and themes and provide a new understanding of innovation in the energy and climate change fields. It tackles the many issues in a way that speaks to those concerned not only to understand these developments, but to those who are involved in the scientific and technological work itself, as well as those charged with evaluating and making decisions relevant to the future of the technology.
Policymakers have raised questions about geoengineering (GE) -- large-scale deliberate interventions in the earth's climate system to diminish climate change or its impacts -- and its role in a broader strategy of mitigating and adapting to climate change. Most GE proposals fall into 2 categories: carbon dioxide removal, which would remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and solar radiation management, which would offset temperature increases by reflecting sunlight back into space. This report examined: (1) the state of GE science; (2) federal involvement in GE; and (3) the views of experts and federal officials about the extent to which federal laws and international agreements apply to GE, and any governance challenges. A print on demand pub.
The sobering reality of the disconnect between the resolve of the world community to effectively address climate change, and what actually needs to be done, has led to increasing impetus for consideration of a suite of approaches collectively known as “climate geoengineering,” or “climate engineering.” Indeed, the feckless response of the world community to climate change has transformed climate geoengineering from a fringe concept to a potentially mainstream policy option within the past decade. This volume will explore scientific, political and legal issues associated with the emerging field of climate geoengineering. The volume encompasses perspectives on both of the major categories of climate geoengineering approaches, carbon dioxide removal and solar radiation management.
Science is clear that to reduce the impacts of climate change increasing amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2 ) will have to be removed from the atmosphere, even if all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were to be completely eliminated. Land-based activities, such as forest, agricultural or soil management, have the potential to remove and/or store significant amounts of carbon. However, a number of concerns exist around the measurability and the non-permanence of natural carbon sinks, with related risks of 'greenwashing' due to reversals, leakages, and double-counting. These concerns will need to be addressed satisfactorily when developing a robust, transparent, and dynamic EU-wide CO2 removals certification system. It should be developed step-by-step and allow for learning-by doing. Initial focus should be on those land-based CO2 removal options for which high-quality monitoring capability already exists, such as afforestation, reforestation, agro-forestry and biochar. Transparency will be key. Each CO2 removal certificate - representing a tonne of CO2 removed from the atmosphere for a specified period of time - will have to carry a minimum set of information including geo-references, period of validity, methodologies used and on-going monitoring requirements to be followed. Additional information, for example, in terms of promoting biodiversity, could highlight co-benefits. The governance of an EU-wide certification system will have to clarify roles and responsibilities of different public and private actors, establishing sufficient checks and balances in developing methodologies and their use, keeping track of issuance, ownership, and transactions in the central EU registry, as well as regulating public access. If successful, an EU-wide CO2 removal certification system could set a new international standard. In the EU, it would lay the foundation for creating performance-based incentive systems, which can be created via standards, direct public support like under the Common Agriculture Policy, voluntary markets, and compliance markets such as the EU emissions trading system.
This is a print on demand edition of a hard to find publication. It is urgent that we must reduce emissions of carbon dioxide to help mitigate negative effects of climate change. Recently, there have been questions about geo-engineering (GE) -- large-scale deliberate interventions in the earth's climate system to diminish climate change. Most GE proposals fall into two approaches: solar radiation management, which offset temp. increases by reflecting a small percentage of the sun's light back into space; and carbon dioxide removal, which removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This testimony focuses on: (1) the state of the science regarding GE approaches and their effects; (2) fed. involvement in GE activities; and (3) the views of experts about the extent to which fed. laws and internat. agree. apply to GE.
Greenhouse gas removal (GGR) technologies can remove greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Most of the current GGR technologies focus on carbon dioxide removal, these include afforestation and reforestation, bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, direct air capture, enhanced weathering, soil carbon sequestration and biochar, ocean fertilisation and coastal blue carbon. GGR technologies will be essential in limiting global warning to temperatures below 1.5°C (targets by the IPCC and COP21) and will be required to achieve deep reductions in atmospheric CO2 concentration. In the context of recent legally binding legislation requiring the transition to a net zero emissions economy by 2050, GGR technologies are broadly recognised as being indispensable. This book provides the most up-to-date information on GGR technologies that provide removal of atmosphere CO2, giving insight into their role and value in achieving climate change mitigation targets. Chapters discuss the issues associated with commercial development and deployment of GGRs, providing potential approaches to overcome these hurdles through a combination of political, economic and R&D strategies. With contributions from leaders in the field, this title will be an indispensable resource for graduate students and researchers in academia and industry, working in chemical engineering, mechanical engineering and energy policy.
The New Carbon Economy provides a critical understanding of the carbon economy. It offers key insights into the constitution, governance and effects of the carbon economy, across a variety of geographical settings. Examines different dimensions of the carbon economy from a range of disciplinary angles in a diversity of settings Provides ways for researchers to subject claims of newness and uniqueness to critical scrutiny Historicizes claims of the 'newness' of the carbon economy Covers a range of geographical settings including Europe, the US and Central America
Given the growing urgency to develop global responses to a changing climate, The Carbon Fix examines the social and equity dimensions of putting the world’s forests—and, necessarily, the rural people who manage and depend on them—at the center of climate policy efforts such as REDD+, intended to slow global warming. The book assesses the implications of international policy approaches that focus on forests as carbon and especially, forest carbon offsets, for rights, justice, and climate governance. Contributions from leading anthropologists and geographers analyze a growing trend towards market principles and financialization of nature in environmental governance, placing it into conceptual, critical, and historical context. The book then challenges perceptions of forest carbon initiatives through in-depth, field-based case studies assessing projects, policies, and procedures at various scales, from informed consent to international carbon auditing. While providing a mixed assessment of the potential for forest carbon initiatives to balance carbon with social goals, the authors present compelling evidence for the complexities of the carbon offset enterprise, fraught with competing interests and interpretations at multiple scales, and having unanticipated and often deleterious effects on the resources and rights of the world’s poorest peoples—especially indigenous and rural peoples. The Carbon Fix provides nuanced insights into political, economic, and ethical issues associated with climate change policy. Its case approach and fresh perspective are critical to environmental professionals, development planners, and project managers; and to students in upper level undergraduate and graduate courses in environmental anthropology and geography, environmental and policy studies, international development, and indigenous studies.
This is a print on demand edition of a hard to find publication. The term ¿geoengineering¿ describes this array of technologies that aim, through large-scale and deliberate modifications of the Earth¿s energy balance, to reduce temperatures and counteract anthropogenic climate change. Most of these technologies are at the conceptual and research stages, and their effectiveness at reducing global temperatures has yet to be proven. Moreover, very few studies have been published that document the cost, environmental effects, sociopolitical impacts, and legal implications of geoengineering. Contents of this report: Intro.; Geoengineering Governance; Geoengineering Technologies; The Debate over the Methods of Oversight; The Debate over Oversight and Governmental Involvement; Conclusion. Illus.
To limit global warming to 1.5°C, vast amounts of CO2 will have to be removed from the atmosphere via Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR). Enhancing the CO2 sequestration of ecosystems will require not just one approach but a portfolio of CDR options, including so-called nature-based approaches alongside CDR options that are perceived as more technical. Creating a CDR “supply curve” would however imply that all carbon removals are considered to be perfect substitutes. The various co-benefits of nature-based CDR approaches militate against this. We discuss this aspect of nature-based solutions in connection with the enhancement of blue carbon ecosystems (BCE) such as mangrove or seagrass habitats. Enhancing BCEs can indeed contribute to CO 2 sequestration, but the value of their carbon storage is low compared to the overall contribution of their ecosystem services to wealth. Furthermore, their property rights are often unclear, i.e. not comprehensively defined or not enforced. Hence, payment schemes that only compensate BCE carbon sequestration could create tradeoffs at the expense of other important, often local, ecosystem services and might not result in socially optimal outcomes. Accordingly, one chance for preserving and restoring BCEs lies in the consideration of all services in potential compensation schemes for local communities. Also, local contexts, management structures, and benefit-sharing rules are crucial factors to be considered when setting up international payment schemes to support the use of BCEs and other nature- or ecosystem-based CDR. However, regarding these options as the only hope of achieving more CDR will very probably not bring about the desired outcome, either for climate mitigation or for ecosystem preservation. Unhalted degradation, in turn, will make matters worse due to the large amounts of stored carbon that would be released. Hence, countries committed to climate mitigation in line with the Paris targets should not hide behind vague pledges to enhance natural sinks for re-moving atmospheric CO2 but commit to scaling up engineered CDR.
