The Committee on Climate Change has published a report claiming that if the UK is to meet the goals set out in the Paris Climate Agreement, development of carbon removal technologies needs to be accelerated.
As of 5th October, the ratification threshold for the Paris Agreement has been met, meaning that it will officially come into effect on the 4th November, bringing with it ambitious aims that must be met by all countries involved in order to limit global warming to ideally 1.5C, and at most 2C.
The UK has already set itself fairly drastic greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets, and the government has indicated that, in line with he aims of the Paris Agreement, it “intends at some point to set a UK target for reduction domestic emissions to net zero”.
The CCC’s report suggests that to do so any time soon would be premature and that instead, efforts should be focussed on doing everything possible to work towards meeting existing targets which, it concedes, should nonetheless be subject to review in the near future. Keeping to the “five-yearly cycle of pledges and reviews” as set out in the Paris Agreement’s terms would be sufficient, without adding unfeasible targets in meantime.
What the government should focus on is adjusting policy in order keep up with the regular domestically set carbon budgets, the CCC said.
“The most important contribution the government can make now to the Paris Agreement is publishing a robust plan to meet the UK carbon budgets and delivering policies in line with the plan.”
Doing so, the CCC argues, “will require economy-wide improvements to efficiency, decarbonisation of electricity and scaling up of markets for zero-emission vehicles and heating.” Without any drastic change to current policy, the committee claim, the best we can hope for is to get about half way towards existing targets. Further, some sense of urgency is required in order to “reduce long term costs and keep options open for the future”.
The focus on updating existing policies and systems to increase efficiency is one that was also highlighted recently by the World Energy Council, who claimed that added efficiencies, including more widespread use of smart grid systems, could lead to energy demand per capita peaking within the next 15 years.
The CCC argued that, even with more widespread adoption of lower carbon energy sources, the UK’s GHG emissions cannot expect to drop as far as the government intends for them to. With this is mind, they said, what is needed is increased development of technologies that can actively remove greenhouse gases from the air.
“Greenhouse gas removal options (e.g. afforestation, carbon-storing materials, bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, and direct air capture and storage) will be required alongside widespread decarbonisation in order to reach net zero emissions.”
This will be no mean feat of course, and will, by the CCC’s estimation, “require a globally co-ordinated effort across the full chain from basic research to market readiness, reflecting the differing levels of development of removal options.”
One of the most straightforward methods of carbon removal is to simply plant trees. However, the time and space required to do so on the scale that would be necessary make it a somewhat inefficient method on its own. Further development of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology would be crucial as well.
As well as detailing what they see as the best approach for the government to take towards meeting existing aims, the CCC’s report also addressed potential uncertainties regarding climate targets in the light of the Brexit vote.
“If the UK has weaker standards than the EU,” the report said, “that could lead to a dumping on the UK market of inefficient products with higher running costs and emissions.”
