Massive amounts of capital are being funneled into renewables and energy efficacy to address climate change, but this may be putting the cart before the horse, a new study from Oxford University geosystem science professor Myles Allen suggests. “Discussion of backstop mitigation options, such as CO2 removal, is often dismissed as a distraction from the need to reduce emissions now. The analysis … suggests that the converse may be true: focusing exclusively on short-term emission reduction may be distracting us from what really matters for peak warming,” Allen said in the paper published this week in the journal Nature Climate Change.
Allen argues that unless at least one technology capable of reducing net CO2 emissions to zero in a cost-effective manner is developed, “some fossil CO2 emissions would continue in the absence of a complete global ban on fossil fuel extraction and use.” If that were to happen, the world would never achieve net-zero emissions and prevent global temperature rise beyond the 2-degree Celsius target.
