The Paris climate conference set the ambitious goal of limiting climate change to two degrees and pursuing efforts to limit climate change to 1.5 degrees. Most emissions scenarios that limit climate change to below two degrees consider that technology to remove CO2 from the atmosphere will be available, acceptable, and affordable in the coming decades, but is this realistic?
The most common technology involves the sequestration of CO2 by plants, its use as bioenergy, and the capture and storage underground of the CO2 emitted during the bioenergy process (Carbon Capture and Storage – CCS). Bioenergy with Capture and Storage (BECCS) does not yet exist. Although there is a large and growing industry for bioenergy and available technology for CCS, they have not been combined and tested at scale and many potential issues need to be examined before assuming this technology will be an option for the future.
Tyndall research are working on a range of projects related to BECCS, from the sustainability of the bioenergy to the acceptability of CCS.
The science of climate change communication 