ONE annual lecture: Carbon dioxide removal: Are science and policy keeping up with the market?

Oxford Networks for the Environment (ONE) annual lecture followed by panel discussion and drinks reception - all welcome.

Programme:

Welcome by Prof Heidi Johansen-Berg, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Strategic Initiatives

Keynote by Prof Gideon Henderson

Panel discussion:
Dr Steve Smith, Arnell Associate Professor of Greenhouse Gas Removal
Dr Jessica Omukuti, Research Fellow on the Politics of Net Zero in the Global South
Chaired by Prof Rosalind Rickaby, Chair of Geology, Department of Earth Sciences

Update on the Oxford Networks for the Environment by Professor Jim Hall, Professor of Climate and Environmental Risks, and Chair of ONE Network, Environmental Change Institute.

Abstract:

Even with stringent and rapid reductions in emission of greenhouse gases it is clear, and has been since the Paris agreement in 2015, that we will need to remove hundreds of billions of tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere to keep warming below 2oC.  More than 200 companies are now pursuing this CO2 removal (CDR), using a wide range of approaches. More than $10bn has been invested in a voluntary CDR market which, by some projections, will grow to $100bn per year. Most approaches to CDR are novel, untested and still at small scale. Whether they actually deliver the quantity of CDR claimed, and whether that removal is permanent and in addition to natural carbon uptake remain open questions. Accurate and robust measurement and verification of CDR also remains a significant challenge. And the consequences of CDR approaches to the wider environment are under-investigated.

CDR presents both a challenge and a dilemma to environmental scientists and regulators. We urgently need to develop approaches to CDR at large scale if we want to prevent dangerous climate change, but the precautionary principle guides us to pursue such major interventions with care. This challenge becomes more acute as countries build CDR into their future emission commitments and as compliance markets develop, requiring regulation that both promotes CDR innovation and protects the environment. This lecture will ask: what do we need to do, as the demand for CDR credits grows, to ensure that credits have real climate value and are not causing unintended environmental harm.