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- Buck, Holly Jean, et al.
(author)
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Why residual emissions matter right now
- 2023
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In: Nature Climate Change. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1758-6798 .- 1758-678X. ; 13:4, s. 351-358
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Net-zero targets imply that continuing residual emissions will be balanced by carbon dioxide removal. However, residual emissions are typically not well defined, conceptually or quantitatively. We analysed governments’ long-term strategies submitted to the UNFCCC to explore projections of residual emissions, including amounts and sectors. We found substantial levels of residual emissions at net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, on average 18% of current emissions for Annex I countries. The majority of strategies were imprecise about which sectors residual emissions would originate from, and few offered specific projections of how residual emissions could be balanced by carbon removal. Our findings indicate the need for a consistent definition of residual emissions, as well as processes that standardize and compare expectations about residual emissions across countries. This is necessary for two reasons: to avoid projections of excessive residuals and correspondent unsustainable or unfeasible carbon-removal levels and to send clearer signals about the temporality of fossil fuel use.
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- Lund, Jens Friis, et al.
(author)
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Net zero and the unexplored politics of residual emissions
- 2023
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In: Energy Research & Social Science. - : Elsevier BV. - 2214-6326 .- 2214-6296. ; 98:April
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this perspective article, we call for more engagement with the unexplored politics of residual emissions. Residual emissions are those emissions that remain at the point of net zero, despite abatement efforts. Unlike carbon dioxide removal, which has been the focus of a lively research and policy debate, the notion of residual emissions remains relatively unexplored so far. With the mainstreaming of net zero as the long-term goal of climate policy, the politics of residual emissions are set to become a key point of contestation. Claims about residual emissions tend to revolve around notions of necessity and possibility, i.e. emissions that derive from activities deemed socially necessary yet impossible to fully abate. In this perspective article, we highlight how such claims are socially constructed and ultimately contingent on values, norms and interests. We call upon researchers to help render visible the geographically and historically contingent claims to necessity and possibility that underpin projected residual emissions. We see this as an important means to repoliticize debates about the limits and possibilities of emissions abatement, and suggest entry points for such research efforts.
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- Rodriguez, Emily, 1988-
(author)
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Promises and Pitfalls of Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage : Actors' Perspectives, Challenges, and Mitigation Deterrence in Sweden
- 2024
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) methods, such as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), have gained traction in international climate policy arenas to meet net-zero goals. Even though companies operating facilities with large point sources of biogenic emissions, such as pulp and paper industries and energy utilities, could implement carbon capture, there are few studies that take a bottomup perspective to study these key actors. With more large point sources of biogenic emissions than any other country in Europe, Sweden has theoretical potential to implement BECCS. The Swedish Government seeks to leverage this potential to reach net-zero emissions by 2045. The aim of this thesis is to examine challenges for the implementation of BECCS in Sweden to contribute to sustainability transitions, and to analyze the prospect for deploying BECCS through the lens of mitigation deterrence. This lens is a way to study risks of foregone emissions, overshoots, and rebound effects when relying on a future carbon removal method such as BECCS. This thesis studies how BECCS is socially constructed by key actors in Sweden by analyzing perspectives held by companies, civil servants, political parties, and other key actors, through interviews and focus groups. This study also analyzes how plans to include BECCS impact net-zero strategies in Stockholm, the first city to have a pilot and demonstration facility for BECCS in Europe. Even though the Swedish Government has already been co-financing research and development on BECCS, there is very little planning regarding transport and storage of carbon dioxide. Key actors suggest that neighboring Norway is a logical starting point for geological storage. Therefore, this study includes a literature review on geological storage in the North Sea and Norway to problematize some of the complexities with storage. Based on the empirical material, the main challenges for implementing BECCS in Sweden include: (1) unclear distribution of responsibility for BECCS in sustainability transitions; (2) insufficient financial support, enabling policies, and structure for governing BECCS; and (3) transport and storage uncertainties. These challenges combine to create risks of mitigation deterrence, in the form of policymakers’ overoptimism towards the potential of BECCS. Furthermore, relying on BECCS can lead to less focus on minimizing residual emissions from other sectors. Since Sweden faces several challenges in implementing BECCS, this shows that the global promises for BECCS are more difficult to realize than is often portrayed by integrated assessment models.
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