Geoengineering is a dangerous distraction

As concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide surpass 400 parts per million, the costs of the climate crisis continue to rise.

Last October, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that global temperatures approaching 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels will have serious consequences for humanity and biodiversity. Anything beyond that level will be catastrophic.

To avoid crossing the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold, the world must nearly halve its CO2 emissions by 2030, and reach net zero emissions by 2050. This will be possible only if we eliminate fossil fuels from the economy within the next few decades. Attempts to circumvent that reality will only make matters worse.

We’re at risk of doing just that.

A growing number of people are now considering the once-unthinkable strategy of geoengineering our way out of the climate crisis. Proposed approaches vary widely, but all share a few key features: They are technologically uncertain, environmentally risky, and more likely to accelerate the climate crisis than to reverse it.

Proponents advocate two main geoengineering strategies: carbon dioxide removal and solar radiation modification.

The specifics of each strategy only reinforce the dangers of geoengineering. Consider CDR, which aims to absorb carbon from the atmosphere after it has been emitted. The most widely discussed approach — bioenergy with carbon capture and storage — would mean clearing large stretches of intact forest, displacing food crops, or both, to produce more burnable fuels.

Another major CDR technology — direct air capture — would suck CO2 from the air by installing what are essentially huge air filters around the planet. To pay for this extremely energy-intensive process, proponents want to use the captured CO2 to produce diesel and jet fuels, which would then be burned and re-emitted in an endless cycle.

The explanation for this apparent cognitive dissonance is simple. As a new analysis shows, many of those advocating geoengineering have worked for, been funded by, or stood to profit from the fossil-fuel industries that created the climate crisis in the first place.

The oil, gas, coal, and utility industries have spent decades researching, patenting, and promoting geoengineering technologies with the goal of safeguarding the dominant role of fossil fuels in the economy.

Carroll Muffett is President and CEO of the Center for International Environmental Law and a co-author of CIEL’s Fuel to the Fire report. Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2019. www.project-syndicate.org