Carbon dioxide will have to be removed from air to achieve 1.5C, says report

theguardian.com:

Removing carbon dioxide from the air will now be essential if there is to be any chance of meeting global climate targets, a thinktank has warned.

Carbon offset markets will need to be tidied up and managed properly, as offsets will form a critical route to limiting global heating to 1.5C in line with scientific warnings, according to the Energy Transitions Commission, as switching to renewable energy alone will not produce enough carbon savings. Other methods, such as tree planting and carbon capture and storage, will also be critical.

Lord Adair Turner, the former head of the CBI and ex-chair of the UK government’s Committee on Climate Change and now chair of the Energy Transitions Commission, said carbon offsets and carbon markets were viewed with suspicion as they had been subject to mismanagement and abuse, but that well-functioning markets were possible.

“We would encourage the tidying up of what has been an area with loose standards and loose claims,” Turner said. “It would be very unfortunate to take the past problems of the carbon markets and use that to say we should not use them at all. This is potentially a very large flow of money. So we should try to make sure that financial flow, which is valuable, is provided.”

The Guardian and others have uncovered numerous instances of questionable benefits from carbon offsets offered for sale on the voluntary carbon markets, so-called because they are not formally regulated by governments.

The Energy Transitions Commission report, entitled Mind the Gap: How Carbon Dioxide Removals Must Complement Deep Decarbonisation to Keep 1.5°C Alive, examined ways of removing carbon from the air after it is emitted, in contrast to renewable energy which removes the need to emit carbon