„Consider, for example, how far the planet remains from any of the carbon emission trajectories in which — according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — global warming would remain below 2 degrees. Even in the most lenient scenarios, we would have to be cutting net emissions already. „
Woolf, Dominic; Lehmann, Johannes; Lee, David R. (2016): Optimal bioenergy power generation for climate change mitigation with or without carbon sequestration. In nature communications 7. DOI 10.1038/ncomms13160.
„Although bioenergy-biochar systems (BEBCS) can also deliver CDR, they are not included in any IPCC scenario. Here we show that despite BECCS offering twice the carbon sequestration and bioenergy per unit biomass, BEBCS may allow earlier deployment of CDR at lower carbon prices when long-term improvements in soil fertility offset biochar production costs.“
„New Cornell research suggests an economically viable model to scrub carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to thwart runaway, point-of-no-return global warming. The researchers propose using a “bioenergy-biochar system” that removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in an environmental pinch, until other removal methods become economically feasible and in regions where other methods are impractical.“
PhD Candidate blog article. „Though climate forecasts often look bleak, geoengineering offers a glimmer of hope for the future. Making the planet a little cooler through solar geoengineering is a fast growing area of research with a lot of potential, though it is not a permanent solution. Removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere could counteract damage that’s already been done, though it needs to be scaled up considerably. Together, the two techniques can be used to complement each other effectively. […] Katie Dagon is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard.“
Yang, Huiyi; Dobbie, Steven; Ramirez-Villegas, Julian; Feng, Kuishuang; Challinor, Andrew J.; Chen, Bing et al. (2016): Potential negative consequences of geoengineering on crop production. A study of Indian groundnut. In Geophys. Res. Lett. DOI 10.1002/2016GL071209.
„A few case studies suggest that certain crops are likely to benefit from solar dimming geoengineering, yet we show geoengineering is projected to have detrimental effects for groundnut. Using an ensemble of crop-climate model simulations, we illustrate that groundnut yields in India undergo a statistically significant decrease of up to 20 % as a result of solar dimming geoengineering relative to RCP4.5.“
MacMartin, Douglas G.; Kravitz, Ben; Long, Jane C. S.; Rasch, Philip J. (2016): Geoengineering with stratospheric aerosols. What don’t we know after a decade of research? In Earth’s Future. DOI 10.1002/2016EF000418.
„We articulate key unknowns associated with SAG, including both climate-science and design questions, as an essential step towards developing a future strategic research program that could address outstanding uncertainties.“
Thomson, Giles; Newman, Peter (2016): Geoengineering in the Anthropocene through Regenerative Urbanism. In Geosciences 6 (4), p. 46–46. DOI 10.3390/geosciences6040046.
„To better define urban sustainability performance, we describe three horizons of green urbanism: green design, that seeks to improve upon conventional development; sustainable development, that is the first step toward a net zero impact; and the emerging concept of regenerative urbanism, that enables biosphere repair. Examples of green urbanism exist that utilize technology and design to optimize urban metabolism and deliver net positive sustainability performance. If mainstreamed, regenerative approaches can make urban development a major urban geoengineering force, while simultaneously introducing life-affirming co-benefits to burgeoning cities.“
Baatz, Christian; Ott, Konrad (2016): Why Aggressive Mitigation Must Be Part of Any Pathway to Climate Justice. In Christopher J. Preston (Ed.): Climate Justice and Geoengineering: Rowman [&] Littlefield International.
Chapter in[nbsp]Preston, Christopher J. (Ed.) (2016) by two SPP researchers. „This contribution’s aim is twofold: on the one hand, we argue that wealthy high-emitting countries are obligated to radically lower their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and if undertaken properly, this will very likely not overburden their respective citizen (section 2); on the other hand, we defend the primacy of mitigation duties arguing that possible obligations to adopt further supplementary strategies do not diminish these (section 3).“
Burns, William C. G. (2016): The Paris Agreement and Climate Geoengineering Governance. The Need for a Human Rights-Based Component (CIGI Papers, 111).
„This paper suggests a framework for achieving the objective of protecting human rights in the context of climate change response measures. […] The paper suggests that the parties to the Paris Agreement utilize a human rights-based approach as a framing mechanism to ensure that the potential human rights implications of climate geoengineering options are assessed in the policy-making process moving forward.“
The news review of calendar week 44 in 2016 is now available here.
