Next week, representatives of government will be in Glasgow to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26). This is the latest meeting in a series of increasingly hectic meetings that humanity has been attending as it runs out of time for drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Everyone agrees carbon is harmful. Everyone agrees that carbon dioxide is bad. It can last up to 1,000 years in our atmosphere. The goal of the world is to keep global temperatures below 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. This is the Paris Climate Agreement boundary.
However, nations are not united in their efforts to get there. To stop the worst effects of climate change, we need to reduce carbon emissions and find ways of removing them from the atmosphere. These are some options that delegates may be considering as COP26 goes on.
Problem with net zero
Net-zero emissions is a tricky little concept. If you emit any carbon into the atmosphere you must also remove the same amount. Narendra Modi, India's prime minister, declared Monday at COP26 that India would achieve this goal by 2070. In a similar announcement earlier this year, President Joe Biden stated that the United States would achieve the same goal by 2050. This is a goal also set out by the UK.
Although it is a popular idea, it is based on only achieving the minimum. The main reason that we will likely see a lot more discussion at COP26 and going forward is because the world continues to lip service to the idea to limit warming to one-and-a half degrees, according to Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist who is also the director of the Breakthrough Institute's climate and energy advocacy group.
Advertisement
Net zero doesn't necessarily mean these countries will stop emitting greenhouse gases by the target dates. They won't be adding any greenhouse gases to the atmosphere by that time. It is possible for Net-zero to be used as a ploy, since it allows countries to continue polluting while also capturing the pollution. It's like trying to drain the bathtub while the tap is still on full blast.
This might encourage countries to continue releasing greenhouse gases as long as they are also sequestering them. A country could make a huge deal about moving its carbon-intensive industries, such as steel production offshore, then disavow all emissions and just import the materials. Corporates are not incentivized to reduce their emissions if it is possible to buy carbon credits. Angela Anderson, director for industrial innovation and carbon reduction at the non-profit World Resources Institute, said that it is a reasonable concern. She also warned against the temptation, and perhaps the desire, of some fossil fuel industry interests to not reduce their emissions in order to maintain their business plans.
It is difficult to define net zero because of the complexity of international exchanges. Janos Pasztor is the executive director of Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative. He says that nobody knows what net zero means. He says that a net zero nation must add or remove the same amount carbon to the atmosphere. But, it remains to be determined what that means and how to measure it.
Advertisement
These experts also say that aiming for zero doesn't mean you aren't trying low enough. We must remove some carbon already present in the atmosphere. Hausfather says that 1.5 will be almost certain in the next 20 years. The only way to bring the temperature back to 1.5 C is by actively sucking carbon out of the atmosphere. It's impossible to find another way.
Pasztor agrees that the reality is that we haven't done what we should've done 30 years ago to reduce emissions enough to avoid being in this situation today. It's too late to reduce emissions.
Carbon-capturing technologies
The US government appears to have understood the message. On Tuesday, the White House announced Carbon Negative Shot (a play upon a moonshot), which is an initiative to accelerate the development of carbon-removal technology. The White House has released a new report acknowledging that some industries will resist decarbonization, such as manufacturing and rail transport. According to the report, it is crucial that the United States removes CO 2 from the atmosphere in order to attain net-zero emissions by 2050 and net negative emissions thereafter.
There are two types of carbon-capturing technology. Carbon capture and storage (or CCS) refers to the process of capturing and storing emissions from fossil fuel power stations. CDR (carbon dioxide removal) is a free-standing machine that takes in carbon dioxide and passes it through membranes that draw out the CO 2. This technology is also known as direct air capture. Capture and storage would be used to sequester emissions that a country is producing currently, while air removal would be used to sequester legacy emissions.
