Delivering the ‘Net’ in Net Zero

In its report, Delivering the ‘Net’ in Net Zero, published today, the Coalition for Negative Emissions calls for the urgent scale up of negative emissions markets to meet the climate targets set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement. A blend of voluntary, government-supported and regulated markets will help to ensure maximum carbon removal at minimum cost to society.

The Coalition warns that emissions reduction efforts must be complemented by the development of robust carbon removals markets that can deliver between 3,500 to 16,000 MtCO2e of negative emissions a year by 2050. Otherwise, the world will exceed the Paris Agreement target of less than 1.5 degrees of global warming.

Paul Davies, the report’s author said: “The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently offered a sobering assessment of society’s ability to stay within the 1.5-degree pathway. And without urgent and profound action from the public and private sectors, society will be unable to reverse its current climate trajectory. Even at the lowest end of estimates for negative emissions, the current pipeline will have to increase 22-fold. Our ability to move quickly and develop a thriving negative emissions market now will make the difference between whether today’s climate ambition becomes tomorrow’s climate reality.”