Towards net zero CO2 emissions without relying on massive carbon dioxide removal

Abstract

Current emission scenarios that allow keeping the global temperature increase below 2 °C or even 1.5 °C-as foreseen by the Paris Agreement-are based on very optimistic assumptions, including enormous volumes of carbon dioxide removal (CDR). A closer look at the globally most important emission sectors-power, transport and industry-shows manifold barriers for very ambitious mitigation. A new policy guideline called "Net Zero CO 2 Emissions without relying on massive CDR" and promotion of technological research, in addition to economic incentives and other policy measures, would help to overcome the often simplistic demands for positive modelling results and refocus climate policy on tackling the enormous barriers in key emitting sectors. Such an approach is more aligned with the Paris Agreement's bottom-up logic and therefore more appropriate to make the transformational project of global decarbonization a success.Publisher's Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

The Role of Direct Air Capture in Mitigation of Anthropogenic Greenhouse Gas Emissions

“…In most scenarios the rate of CDR reaches several billions of tons (1Gt = 1 billion tons) per year over several decades as shown in Figure 1. Such large scale remains indicative, as global mitigation efforts and their success varies depending on shared socio-economic pathways, e.g., outlined by Rogelj et al (2018) and technological feasibility of country-level net zero emission targets, e.g., outlined by Kaya et al (2019). In all cases, CDR within a gigaton order of magnitude remain relevant and show a substantial impact on achieving climate targets, e.g., Realmonte et al (2019).…”

Constraints on long term warming in a climate mitigation scenario

“…In summary, even in the presence of large uncertainty on long term response to emissions, near-term climate policy can be well posed through the use of a time-limited net carbon budget, or equivalently, a near-term commitment for a percentage reduction in emissions by a certain date (Sachs et al, 2016;Kaya et al, 2019). Such a framework allows near-term emissions reduction requirements to broadly be considered separately from the negative emission fluxes required for temperature stabilization, the feasibility of which remains deeply uncertain (Fuss et al, 2014;Anderson and Peters, 2016), and does not require waiting for peak warming to occur (Rogelj et al, 2019b) in order to inform the required scale of negative emissions capacity (especially in the theoretical case where peak warming occurs significantly after net zero emissions are reached).…”

A Smart Colorimetric Platform for Detection of Methanol, Ethanol and Formic Acid

“…were prepared at a concentration of 0.003 M and used throughout the experiment. The pH effect of the different test analytes with different dye solutions was analyzed in acidic (2,4,6), neutral, and basic (9,12) solutions. Each dye solution (10 mL) was treated with 1 mL of 0.5 ppm test solution (ethanol/formic acid/methanol) separately in the adjusted pH.…”

“…The Paris Agreement aims to decrease atmospheric CO 2 levels by 2050 in most countries [2,3]. CO 2 conversion, therefore, becomes a viable option to address this without interfering with the development of the urbanization process [4]. The products of CO 2 conversion can also be used for industrial chemicals production or energy production.…”