„The 368-page strategy was published alongside a raft of other documents, including a 202-page heat and buildings strategy, a 135-page Treasury review of the costs of reaching net-zero and numerous other documents. In total, Carbon Brief counted 21 documents covering 1,868 pages.“
Morrow, David R.; Nicholson, Simon (2021): Sustainable Carbon Removal. American University, School of International Service.
„Analyzing carbon removal at different levels can illuminate environmental, social, and economic risks and opportunities. Levels of analysis range from broad technological categories, like reforestation, to specific projects, like Climeworks’ Orca direct air capture project in Iceland. Most analyses have focused on broad technological categories, but more fine-grained analyses are crucial for delivering actionable advice. Finding metrics for environmental, social, and economic impacts is vital for quantifying positive and negative impacts and comparing approaches. One possibility is to use the indicators for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, which are politically negotiated, internationally accepted metrics of environmental, social, and economic sustainability. Determining which approaches are most sustainable requires balancing different positive and negative impacts that may not be easily comparable. There are several ways to do this, ranging from intuitive judgments to multicriteria decision analysis, although any decisions about which approaches are most sustainable are ultimately political decisions. In summary, to develop sustainable carbon removal, we need to identify sustainability metrics, such as the indicators behind the Sustainable Development Goals; apply those metrics at different levels of analysis; and develop strategies for determining which approaches strike the right balance between environmental, social, and economic goals.“
Yue, Chao; Schmidt, Louise Steffensen; Zhao, Liyun; Wolovick, Michael; Moore, John C. (2021): Insensitivity of mass loss of Icelandic Vatnajökull ice cap to solar geoengineering. [in review]. In The Cryosphere Discuss. [preprint]. DOI: 10.5194/tc-2021-318.
„Geoengineering by stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) may reduce the mass loss from Vatnajökull ice cap (VIC), Iceland, by slowing surface temperature rise, despite relative increases in ocean heat flux brought by the Atlantic Meridional Circulation (AMOC). Although surface mass balance (SMB) is affected by the local climate, the sea level contribution is also dependent on ice dynamics. We use the Parallel Ice Sheet Model (PISM) to estimate the VIC mass balance under the CMIP5 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5) RCP4.5, 8.5 and GeoMIP (Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project) G4 SAI scenarios during the period 1982–2089. The G4 scenario is based on the RCP4.5, but with additional 5 Tg yr−1 of SO2 injection to the lower stratosphere. By 2089, G4 reduces VIC mass loss from 16 % lost under RCP4.5, to 12 %. Ice dynamics are important for ice cap loss rates, increasing mass loss for RCP4.5 and G4 by 1/4 to 1/3 compared with excluding ice dynamics, but making no difference to mass loss difference under the scenarios. We find that VIC dynamics are remarkably insensitive to climate forcing partly because of AMOC compensation to SMB and low rates of iceberg calving making ocean forcing close to negligible. But the exceptionally high geothermal heat flow under parts of the ice cap which produces correspondingly high basal melt rates means that surface forcing changes are relatively less important than for glaciers with lower geothermal heat flow.“
German Newspaper Article on Solar Geoengineering.
„The climate crisis is likely to intensify cross-border clashes, aggravate conflicts over water and migration and cause instability, especially in developing countries, in ways that could threaten global security, the Biden administration warned on Thursday.“
„Carbon removal is no substitute for decarbonisation. But for Europe to achieve ‘net zero’ by 2050, it needs to combine both.“
„Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) […] [is] committed to a diverse and equitable workforce with an inclusive culture that values and celebrates the diversity of our people, talents, ideas, experiences, and perspectives. This is essential to innovation and creativity for continued success of the Laboratory’s mission. We have an opening for a Climate and Agricultural Systems Postdoctoral Researcher to develop and pursue research addressing the large-scale climate mitigation potential of agricultural management practices in the United States, focusing primarily on soil carbon. The position will contribute to the drafting of a DOE-funded scientific advising document that outlines the potential for soil carbon accrual and pathways to carbon neutrality at the scale of the US economy. Activities will include development of techno-economic models, synthesis of publicly available data, and statistical analysis of existing soil carbon and biogeochemical data. This position is in Environmental Isotopic Signatures group of the Nuclear and Chemical Sciences Division.“
„Susteon is a technology startup in the Research Triangle Park (Raleigh-Durham area), North Carolina, which is developing and deploying breakthrough technologies that can impact climate change. These technologies are focused on CO2 capture and utilization, and H2 production. Susteon has partnered with a number of national labs and universities to lead R[&]D in these domains to tackle the climate change imperative. Susteon has an immediate opening for a Mechanical Engineer. This position plays a key role in supporting the development of current and future work. This role will primarily focus on our direct air capture technology.“
Grant, Neil; Hawkes, Adam; Mittal, Shivika; Gambhir, Ajay (2021): The policy implications of an uncertain carbon dioxide removal potential. In Joule Volume 5, (10), pp. 2593–2605. Available online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2021.09.004.
„Many low-carbon scenarios rely on carbon dioxide removal (CDR) to meet decarbonization goals. The feasibility of large-scale CDR deployment is highly uncertain, and existing scenarios have been criticized for overreliance on CDR. We conduct an expert survey on the feasible potential for CDR via bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, direct air capture and afforestation. We use the survey results to represent uncertainty in future CDR availability and explore the implications in an integrated assessment model.“
„What Colossal actually aims to produce is less a mammoth than a new synthetic species, a chimaera of Asian elephant DNA and mitochondria, mammoth genetic code and, from the probable surrogate dam, African elephant epigenetics. The resulting cold-adapted elephants — Colossal hopes — will trample and graze northern Siberia to create something akin to the Ice Age grasslands of the woolly mammoth’s heyday. Compacted, cooler soils and paler, more reflective foliage, will — the company says — help to avert climate disaster. De-extinction this is not. This is synthetic biology meets geoengineering.“
