Video: C2G: Challenges and Opportunities for Harnessing Climate & SDG Synergies: the role of Carbon Dioxide Removal
„Five years on from the Paris Agreement, recognition is growing that without rapid acceleration in action, limiting global average temperature rise to 1.5-2 °C will not be possible. All the emission pathways in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C will require the removal of large volumes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere using carbon dioxide removal (CDR) techniques to achieve net-zero and thereafter, net-negative emissions. CDR includes both nature-based approaches such as afforestation and reforestation, and technology-based approaches such as direct air carbon capture and storage (DACCS). If deployed at the scale and pace indicated by the IPCC, CDR would create co-benefits and trade-offs for delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Substantial governance gaps exist around large-scale CDR which need to be addressed urgently to ensure that societal choices, policies, and investments consider regional and national specificities as well as climate and energy goals, in the context of the SDGs implementation. […] The five UN Regional Commissions can play an instrumental role in bringing different actors together, addressing knowledge and governance gaps and breaking silos in implementing the SDGs. Enhancing governance of CDR could provide an excellent opportunity to focus and align regional and international efforts and foster a cross-sectorial approach. This side-event to the UN High-level Dialogue on Energy on the 24th of September 2021, will feature the Executive Secretaries of the five UN Regional Commissions, who provide insight into how each region deals with synergies and trade-offs when it comes to responding to climate change objectives and the SDGs, including the role of CDR.“