2019-Annual-Report

32 Kleinman Center for Energy Policy 2018–2019 Annual Report
FEATURED PODCAST
A HARD LOOK AT
NEGATIVE EMISSIONS
GUEST
Glen Peters, Research Director,
Center for International Climate Research
Much faith is being put in the ability of negative emissions technologies
to slow the pace of climate change. Glen Peters of Norway’s Center for
International Climate Research (CICERO) looks at the potential of negative
emissions strategies, and the steep challenges to implementing them.
The goal of the Paris Climate Accord is to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius,
the point beyond which the impacts of climate change are feared to be most severe and
enduring. Staying below the 2-degree limit will require two complementary strategies.
The first, mitigation, is now familiar and involves limiting carbon dioxide emissions today
by turning to cleaner energy and greater energy efficiency.
The second strategy, negative emissions, is equally important in limiting future climate
impacts yet has received much less attention in public dialogue and policy circles.
Technologies don’t yet exist in any practical sense, yet they will be counted upon to
remove decades worth of carbon dioxide emissions from Earth’s atmosphere by the
end of this century.
At their best, new negative emissions tools will play a vital role in holding climate change
in check. But this may also give us a false sense of security that today’s carbon emissions
can reversed at some point in the future.
The Energy Policy Now podcast with
Glen Peters is “worthy of your time,”
says Ben Geman of Axios. “The podcast
is a lucid look at the potential for
technologies such as direct air capture
and afforestation, but also enormous
challenges—around land use, ethics,
cost and more—facing deployment.”