Danzer & Kirchengast (2026): Bringing fairness also into carbon removal shares of countries is essential for a just transition
Julia Danzer and Gottfried Kirchengast, IN: Global Environmental Change, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2026.103114
Towards achieving the Paris goal of limiting global warming to well below 2°C with an effort to reach 1.5°C, countries not only need to drastically reduce their emissions but also to partially deploy carbon dioxide removal (CDR). CDR from the atmosphere can be achieved by various methods, ranging from nature-based solutions to technical options. The authors started with a survey of recent studies and found mounting evidence that CDR use needs great caution, since there exist strong biophysical and socio-economic constraints on scaling it up; and emission and removal fluxes are not equivalent in terms of climate outcomes.