Quantifying the co-benefits and side-effects of Negative Emissions Technologies and Practices to advance their sustainable scale-up

Speaker: Dr. Selene Cobo Gutiérrez, ETH Zurich

Most climate change mitigation scenarios restricting global warming to 1.5 oC rely heavily on Negative Emissions Technologies and Practices (NETPs). We evaluated multiple NETPs configurations and identified the most promising Pareto-efficient ones, based on four Key Performance Indicators. Next, we assessed the life cycle impacts of Direct Air Capture (DACCS) and Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS). We found that they can prevent substantial damage to human health, and the quantification of these health externalities could facilitate their adoption. Although the large-scale deployment of both NETPs can help to operate within the climate change and ocean acidification safe operating space, they can also exert further pressure on other planetary boundaries. Only DACCS can avert damage to the biosphere integrity without significantly challenging other biophysical limits. Our insights can help guide future research and plan for the sustainable scale-up of NETPs, which we must set into motion within this decade.

Venue: Microsoft Teams