#dioxide

In a recent paper published in Nature Climate Change, an international group of researchers are urging countries to reconsider their strategy to remove CO₂ from the atmosphere. While countries signed up to the Paris Agreement have individual quotas to meet in terms of emissions reduction, they argue this cannot be achieved without global cooperation to ensure enough CO₂ is removed in a fair and equitable way.

Harmful emissions

The team of international researchers from Imperial College London, the University of Girona, ETH Zürich and the University of Cambridge, have stated that countries with greater capacity to remove CO₂ should be more proactive in helping those that cannot meet their quotas.

Co-author Dr Niall Mac Dowell, from the Centre for Environmental Policy and the Centre for Process Systems Engineering at Imperial, said, ‘It is imperative that nations have these conversations now, to determine how quotas could be allocated fairly and how countries could meet those quotas via cross-border cooperation.’

The team’s modelling and research has shown that while the removal quotas vary significantly, only a handful of countries will have the capacity to meet them using their own resources.

Reforestation

A few ways to achieve carbon dioxide removal:

(1)    Reforestation

(2)    Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)  

(3)    CCS coupled to bioenergy – growing crops to burn for fuel. The crops remove CO₂ from the atmosphere, and the CCS captures any CO₂ from the power station before its release.

However, deploying these removal strategies will vary depending on the capabilities of different countries. The team have therefore suggested a system of trading quotas. For example, due to the favourable geological formations in the UK’s North Sea, the UK has space for CCS, and therefore, they could sell some of its capacity to other countries.

Global cooperation 

Co-lead author Dr Carlos Pozo from the University of Girona, concluded; ‘By 2050, the world needs to be carbon neutral - taking out of the atmosphere as much CO₂ as it puts in. To this end, a CO₂ removal industry needs to be rapidly scaled up, and that begins now, with countries looking at their responsibilities and their capacity to meet any quotas.’

DOI: 10.1038/s41558-020-0802-4