A UK research fund has recently announced that £8.3m is being made available to fund up to 10 different research projects for a programme on Greenhouse Gas Removal from the Atmosphere. Examples given as potential topics for research proposals are: Soil carbon,...
BECCS
How a US energy company tried to sell its failing ‘clean coal’ project to the world
Below is an article published by Greenpeace's Energy Desk about the latest scandal involving the Kemper County CCS project. This is extremely relevant to the bioenergy with CCS (BECCS) debate: Kemper County was one of two flagship CCS projects supported by the Obama...
Miserable failure at Kemper “clean coal” plant indicates future failure of “clean bioenergy” climate solution
Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) was granted a huge boost of support by the IPCC’s “mitigation” Working Group in their 5th Assessment Report. Since then growing attention has been given to this technofix as the main approach to removing CO2 from the...
We Can’t Count on Geoengineering to Save Us From Climate Change, Scientists Warn
by Stephen Buranyi (Motherboard) In December, governments around the world got together and grandly agreed to limit global warming to below 2℃ above pre-industrial levels—with a preference for keeping it below 1.5℃. The Paris Agreement recognizes that, if we fail, the...
Vultures are circling after Paris agreement: the carbon dioxide removal sector wants more funding
An article in BizGreen called “How to build a billion dollar industry to fight climate change” features insights from two mmbers of the University of Berkley's Centre for Carbon Removal, describing how increased funding from philanthropic sources can play a key role...
Climate change needs real solutions not more hot air
by Almuth Ernsting (New Internationalist) Are certain proposals to reduce carbon emissions based on technological hype? At a COP21 side event last December, proponents of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) hosted Mike Marsh, the CEO of publicly-owned Canadian energy...
Nature spotlights deep skepticism about bioenergy with carbon capture and storage
by Steven T. Corneliussen (Physics Today) To mitigate climate change, has the planet “gambled its future on the appearance in a puff of smoke of a carbon-sucking fairy godmother”? During the Paris climate summit late last year, European policy analyst Oliver Geden’s...
Nature article confirms: IPCC assumptions about BECCS ignore environmental and wider climate impacts
In his recent article in Nature, Dr Philip Williamson highlights how the targets set out in the Paris Agreement mask an underlying assumption that they will be met through large-scale carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere and, in particular, through Bioenergy...
ETC’s Irreverent Review of 2015… and (possibly) Irrelevant Preview of 2016
Download the full review here. The Year that Ended Dangerously If El Niño weren’t enough, the extraordinary winds that struck Yemen and Mexico’s Pacific Coast were matched by record-breaking forest fires in the Indonesian archipelago, droughts, torrential rains and...
The hidden agenda: how veiled techno – utopias shore up the Paris Agreement
by Kevin Anderson (kevinanderson.info) The Paris Agreement is a genuine triumph of international diplomacy and of how the French people brought an often fractious world together to see beyond national self interest. Moreover, the agreement is testament to how...