Event Archive

In collaboration with International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC), and National Institute for Environmental Studies, GCP organized this workshop focusing on various biophysical, social, economic and technological aspects of negative emissions.

One important aspect discussed was whether negative emissions technologies will create a situation of moral hazard, where costly transitions to carbon-free technologies are postponed in expectation of future cost reductions in abatement costs and containment of climate risks through BECCS. Whether further lock-in will lead to costly investments in carbon-intensive technologies, which will be a disincentive for later transitions, is one obvious question. The International Energy Agency’s latest update of the CCS roadmap also emphasizes that CCS is not on track and that substantially more efforts are needed in order to have CCS ready to generate the carbon savings needed to stabilize the climate. Concerning the latter, we also explored the question how negative emissions would be coordinated globally in the face of the climate agreement impasse we are currently experiencing. Which countries would agree to be providers of public goods enabling others to maintain industrialized patterns of production and what are their incentives? Can co-benefits provide sufficient grounds for the development of BECCS? Is bioenergy the most promising entry point?