Schlagwort: CDR

Europe and Germany’s Role in Catalyzing aTrillion-Euro Industry

Patrick Herhold, Johanna Pütz, Karan Mistry, Robin Bierganz, Phillip Spiekermann, Louisa Maier, German Association for Negative Emissions (DVNE) & Boston Consulting Group (BCG), June 2024

This report has three objectives:

  • The primary objective is to explore and demonstrate the economic potential of carbon dioxide removal (CDR), specifically for Europe and Germany.
  • Additionally, the report aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the quickly evolving CDR landscape while distinguishing CDR from other related concepts.
  • Lastly, the report emphasizes the need for swift and decisive action by providing a specific, stakeholder-oriented action plan to realize the economic potential outlined.

LINK

Nature – Yang et al. (2024): Fast reduction of Atlantic SST threatens Europe-wide gross primary productivity under positive and negative CO2 emissions

Young-Min Yang, Jongsoo Shin, So-Won Park, Jae-Heung Park, Soon-Il An, Jong-Seong Kug, Sang-Wook Yeh, June-Yi Lee, Bin Wang, Tim Li, Nari Im IN: npj Climate and Atmospheric Science, 7, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-024-00674-6

In this study, the authors utilized large ensemble simulations with an Earth system model of full complexity to investigate the response of Gross Primary Production (GPP) to CO2 forcings. The findings reveal a significant asymmetry in the GPP response to CO2 ramp-up and symmetric ramp-down model experiments, especially in Europe, suggesting that GPP declines rapidly as CO2 levels decrease. Remarkably, during the CO2 removal period, the North Atlantic Sea surface temperature experienced cooling due to a delayed recovery of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). This cooling led to precipitation and soil moisture deficits, resulting in a rapid reduction in GPP. This asymmetry in GPP response holds consistent across multi-model simulations.

LINK

The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal: A global independent scientific assessment of Carbon Dioxide Removal, 2nd edition

Stephen M. Smith, Oliver Geden, Matthew J. Gidden, William F. Lamb, Gregory F. Nemet, Jan C. Minx, Holly Buck, Josh Burkev, Emily Cox, Morgan R. Edwards, Sabine Fuss, Injy Johnstone, Finn Müller-Hansen, Julia Pongratz, Benedict S. Probst, Stephanie Roe, Felix Schenuit, Ingrid Schulte, Naomi E. Vaughan, University of Oxford’s Smith School of Enterprise, June 4, 2024

Although the Paris Agreement states that climate change mitigation must be done “in the context of sustainable development”, most scenarios do not explicitly consider social and environmental sustainability. The authors therefore identified a subset of scenarios that can be considered “more sustainable”. Across this group of scenarios, the central range of CDR deployment is 7 to 9 GtCO2 per year in 2050. The lowest scenarios reach 4 GtCO2 per year in 2050. While this range is similar in 2050 to that for all below 2°C scenarios, the more sustainable scenarios cumulatively remove 170 GtCO2 between 2020 and the time of net zero CO2, compared with 260 GtCO2 cumulatively in all below 2°C scenarios.

LINK

Sugiyama et al. (2024): Residual emissions and carbon removal towards Japan’s net-zero goal: a multi-model analysis

Masahiro Sugiyama, Shinichiro Fujimori, Kenichi Wada, Etsushi Kato, Yuhji Matsuo, Osamu Nishiura, Ken Oshiro Takashi Otsuki IN: Environmental Research Communications, 6, 5, DOI 10.1088/2515-7620/ad4af2

The authors study Japan’s net-zero emissions target by 2050 in a multi-model framework, focusing on residual emissions and carbon dioxide removal (CDR). Four energy-economic and integrated assessment models show similar but stronger strategies for the net-zero target, compared to the previous, low-carbon policy target (80% emissions reduction).

LINK

Global Climate: Chemistry of CO2 Removal

Lauren J. Barrett, Samantha Rush, Penny Vlahos, ACS Publications, June 2024

The reader is introduced to the underlying physics of Earth’s energy systems, an outline of the global carbon cycle and its effects on climate over various timescales, and the theory of CDR. Understanding the natural relationship between carbon cycles and global climate is essential to CDR, as most technologies strive to accelerate the long-term carbon storage mechanisms provided in nature. To that end, a bottom-up understanding of atmospheric energy budgets from greenhouse gases to millennial-scale carbon cycling is provided.

LINK

PhD-thesis: Missing Paths to Justice: The Knowledge Politics of Carbon Dioxide Removal

Natalia Rubiano, Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies, https://portal.research.lu.se/en/publications/missing-paths-to-justice-the-knowledge-politics-of-carbon-dioxide

CDR has become a central component in the climate change mitigation scenarios assessed by the IPCC. These scenarios rely on the large-scale deployment of BECCS and Afforestation to keep global average temperatures below 2°C of warming, despite substantial concerns about their feasibility, scalability, and unwanted impacts.
In this thesis, a critical examination of policy-relevant knowledge production and its effects is provided, by scrutinizing CDR as the most recent manifestation of the politics of knowledge in climate change mitigation research. 

LINK

Nature – Fritz et al. (2024): Public engagement for inclusive and sustainable governance of climate interventions

Livia Fritz, Chad M. Baum, Sean Low, Benjamin K. Sovacool IN: Nature Communications, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-48510-y

The need for public engagement is increasingly evident as discussions intensify around emerging methods for carbon dioxide removal and controversial proposals around solar geoengineering. Based on 44 focus groups in 22 countries across the Global North and Global South (N = 323 participants), this article traces public preferences for a variety of bottom-up and top-down engagement practices ranging from information recipient to broad decision authority. Here, the authors show that engagement practices need to be responsive to local political cultures and socio-technical environments, while attending to the global dimensions and interconnectedness of the issues at stake. 

LINK

Policy Brief: Build Carbon Removal Reserve to Secure Future of EU Emissions Trading

by Wilfried Rickels, Mathias Fridahl, Roland Rothenstein, Felix Schenuit, Kiel Institute for the World Economy, May 2024

Transforming an existing ETS that covers gross emissions into a net-emissions system that covers both emissions and removals and introducing a net-zero cap followed by a net-negative cap, poses the challenges of ensuring that the market remains operational and that the policy objectives underlying the ETS are maintained during the transition period. The EU faces this dual challenge. Delpla and Gollier (2019), Rickels, Proelß, et al. (2021), Rickels, Rothenstein, et al. (2022), and Edenhofer et al. (2024) propose introducing a Carbon Central Bank (CCB) to manage the inclusion of CRC trading and the transformation of the existing EU ETS into a net-zero and then net-negative ETS.

LINK

Otto & Matzner (2024): Let Us Get Regional: Exploring Prospects for Biomass-Based Carbon Dioxide Removal on the Ground

Danny Otto, Nils Matzner IN: Journal of Carbon Research, https://doi.org/10.3390/c10010025

This paper aims to address this research gap by comparatively examining the development of biomass-based CDR in three regions of Germany. Taking an exploratory approach, we conducted surveys in these regions to gain insight into stakeholder perceptions of the following six CDR methods: forest management, agriculture and soil carbon, long-lasting building materials, rewetting of peatlands and paludiculture, biochar, and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage. In this article, the authors present the results of the stakeholder survey, which offers multiple perspectives that can shape future studies of regional implementation and yield policy-relevant guidance. Although the research primarily focuses on the regional level in Germany, it sheds light on various conflicts, uncertainties, and potentials that are likely to be relevant for the rollout of CDR in other countries.

LINK

Nature – Mendez et al. (2024): Assessing global urban CO2 removal

Quirina Rodriguez Mendez, Sabine Fuss, Sarah Lück, Felix Creutzig IN: Nature Cities, https://doi.org/10.1038/s44284-024-00069-x

Here, with the aim of supporting the path to achieving net-zero emissions in cities, the authors assess the existing literature on carbon dioxide removal (CDR) at the urban scale, seeking to quantify the potential negative emissions contribution of cities globally. Urban CDR options considered here include the storage of carbon in urban vegetation, soils and buildings, and the capture of CO2 from indoor environments via decentralized direct air capture. Our estimates of carbon storage and capture potentials indicate that deploying CDR options at the urban scale could make a substantial contribution to global mitigation of climate change, alongside supporting the upscaling of climate action from local to regional and national scale. 

LINK