What do you understand by the term Negative Emissions? Discuss its credibility in meeting targets drafted through Paris Climate Agreement 2015.
Refer - The Hindu
IAS Parliament 7 years
KEY POINTS
Negative Emissions (NE)
· Negative emissions means reducing the amount of carbon by capturing it, extracting it from the environment and storing it in a safe place.
· This is commonly known as carbon capture and storage (CCS).
· It has the capacity to change even the earth’s radiation balance through geo-engineering.
Paris climate Agreement 2015
· The Paris Agreement’s central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Credibility of NE
· One widely discussed NE model is bioenergy for fuel in combination with carbon capture and storage (BECCS).
· This involves the use of plants as fuel.The released carbon dioxide is then captured and safely stored indefinitely.
· However, due to competition for land for food and other purposes, and due to technological limitations, this approach is believed to be inappropriate for extensive use.
· Other methods to suck carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and increase carbon dioxide absorption by the oceans are also being explored, but their long-term implications are not clear.
· Scientists have also discussing the possibility of injecting cooling aerosols at a large scale in the atmosphere, but these geoengineering technologies pose huge risks and are also not long-term solutions.
· These excessive dependence on Negative emission models reflect political expedience rather than knowledge.
· If BECCS and other approaches for negative emissions fail, we are likely to see a 4°C increase in global temperatures.
· Negative emissions also create a moral hazard problem, where we expect (future) others to bail us out while we continue to lead profligate lives.
Solutions
· Policies therefore need to support practices that –
a) Successfully keep carbon in the ground
b) Prevent deforestation
c) Support agricultural practice
d) Sequesters carbon and
e) Promote sustainable land use practices that reduce emissions.
· We also need a carbon tax — various models for these have been discussed.
· Policies should nudge especially the more prosperous communities towards less carbon intensive lifestyles, either through taxes or incentives or both.
· Otherwise, today’s largely policies would merely shift current problems on to the shoulders of future generations.
