News Excerpt:

GS Paper III

While the technical details are clear, scientists have questions about the scale at which Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and Carbon-Dioxide Removal (CDR) are expected to succeed.

COP28 Climate Talks:

•  Discussions at COP28 in Dubai revolved around the abatement and removal of carbon emissions, focusing on CCS and CDR technologies.

•  Scientists are uncertain about the scalability of CCS and CDR despite clear technical details.
• The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) heavily relies on CDR to achieve the goal of limiting global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees C.

CDR's Vital Role:

• AR6 clearly indicates that achieving the 1.5 degrees Celsius target is nearly impossible without significant CDR efforts.
• The scenarios assume the sequestration of 5 billion tonnes of CO₂ by 2040, a scale surpassing current annual emissions from India.

CCS effectiveness criteria:

• Effective CCS applications should achieve a capture rate of 90-95% or more, store emissions permanently, and keep methane emissions leakage under 0.5%.
• Despite decades of development, CCS is still considered a technology under development with feasibility concerns.

Concerns of CCS and CDR:

• These technologies might create room for increased greenhouse gas emissions, potentially offsetting their benefits.
• Some worry that the use of CDR methods, particularly in the Global South, could impact land rights, and biodiversity, and compete with essential land-use practices like agriculture as the technology requires land for setup.
• The higher use of CCS and CDR might lead to emissions pathways with a higher contribution from gas, potentially hindering the necessary decline in coal, oil, and gas use by 2050 to meet climate goals.

Way Forward:

• It is critical to strike a balance between using less fossil fuel and technology alternatives.
• The development of workable, scalable CDR techniques that respect biodiversity and land rights should be the main goal of future endeavors.
• To guarantee an equitable and long-lasting strategy for carbon removal and abatement, financial assistance and international cooperation are essential.