3 Minutes to Read (Reuters) – LONDON, June 30 (Reuters) – According to a report released on Wednesday, projects currently in development will only remove a fraction of the carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere that will be required by 2025 to satisfy the global Paris climate target and avoid catastrophic warming. More than 190 nations have joined the Paris Agreement, which aims to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. However, many experts predict that even with large decreases in emissions, removal technologies will be required to accomplish the objective. “Keeping global warming within the Paris Agreement target of 1.5 degrees Celsius cannot be reached without action to provide 1 gigatonne (Gt) of negative emissions globally by 2025,” according to a report by the Coalition for Negative Emissions (CNE) and consulting company McKinsey. If the Paris objective is to be met, countries will need to remove a billion tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere by 2025, and more than one billion tonnes yearly after that. According to the analysis, the existing pipeline of projects in development may only remove roughly 150 million tonnes of CO2 by 2025, well short of what is required. Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage technology, technology to directly absorb and store emissions from the air, and natural climate solutions such as afforestation are examples of negative emission initiatives. Removal technology is currently expensive, and while many countries around the world have put in place programs to put a price on CO2 emissions, the costs are far too low to incentivize new projects. Scaling up the technology, according to the paper, will result in lower costs, with an average cost of 30-100 pounds ($41-138) per tonne of CO2 eliminated by 2050. Countries may assist pay for the technology by granting tax credits for each tonne of CO2 removed, according to Will Gardiner, CEO of coalition member Drax, which is attempting to create an emissions negative power plant using biomass and carbon capture. Bank of America and the Confederation of British Industry are among the other members of the CNE, which includes over 20 firms, investors, and trade organisations (CBI). (1 pound = 0.7234 pound) (Susanna Twidale contributed reporting, and William Maclean edited the piece.) Continue reading
