This so-called mitigation deterrence occurs when there is an overreliance on CDR available now or that could be generated in the future or when it is used to offset emissions. Allowing countries or corporations to hide emissions behind potential large-scale carbon removals in their climate strategies enable polluters to delay or postpone the rapid and real emissions reductions the world urgently needs if it is to avert the worst outcomes of the climate emergency. Deep, fast and sustained emission reductions are the priority for climate action, and removals cannot be allowed to distract from that.
When it comes to carbon removals potential for deterring climate action, Carbon Market Watch focuses on:
“CDR should not be used to deter climate action. Offsetting continued emissions with removals must be a non-starter. Instead, CDR must also contribute to protecting biodiversity, ecosystems and local communities rather than harm them. Enhancing the land sink is important from a climate perspective, but the real focus should be on the wider environmental and social benefits of such activities: carbon should be relegated to a ‘co-benefit’.”
Wijnand Stoefs
Lead expert on carbon removals
“CDR should not be used to deter climate action. Offsetting continued emissions with removals must be a non-starter. Instead, CDR must also contribute to protecting biodiversity, ecosystems and local communities rather than harm them. Enhancing the land sink is important from a climate perspective, but the real focus should be on the wider environmental and social benefits of such activities: carbon should be relegated to a ‘co-benefit’.”
Wijnand Stoefs
Lead expert on carbon removals
Focusing on rapid and deep emissions reductions
Banning the use of carbon removals for offsetting purposes
Prohibiting exaggerated green claims that rely heavily on CDR, such as carbon or climate neutral
In its freshly published report on scaling up carbon dioxide removals in the EU, the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change (ESABCC), established by the EU Climate Law, makes setting separate climate targets its number one recommendation. This aligns with what Carbon Market Watch and other stakeholders have been advocating.
This explainer answers key questions related to the topic of carbon removals, the principle of separate targets, and their implications for implementation.
This briefing delves deeper into how biodiversity is being handled in the carbon farming methodologies, with a particular focus on agriculture.
This explainer answers key questions related to the topic of carbon removals, the principle of separate targets, and their implications for implementation.
The 2015 Paris Agreement established the global ambition to “achieve a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases (GHG)
wijnand.stoefs[at]carbonmarketwatch.org
fabiola.desimone[at]carbonmarketwatch.org
marlene.ramon[at]carbonmarketwatch.org
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