Dear list, A new paper on governance of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is published online in Climate Policy, doi:10.1080/14693062.2018.1509044.
********************************** Governance of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage: accounting, rewarding, and the Paris Agreement Asbjørn Torvanger Abstract. Studies show that the ‘well below 2 °C’ target from the Paris Agreement will be hard to meet without large negative emissions from mid-century onwards, which means removing CO2 from the atmosphere and storing the carbon dioxide in biomass, soil, suitable geological formations, deep ocean sediments, or chemically bound to certain minerals. Biomass energy combined with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) is the negative emission technology given most attention in a number of integrated assessment model studies and in the latest IPCC reports. However, less attention has been given to governance aspects of negative emission technologies. This study aims to identify pragmatic ways forward for BECCS, through synthesizing the literature on accounting and rewarding, and its relation to the Paris Agreement. BECCS is divided into its two elements biomass and CCS. Calculating net negative emissions requires accounting for sustainability and resource use related to biomass energy production, processing and use, and interactions with the global carbon cycle. Accounting for the CCS element of BECCS foremost relates to carbon dioxide capture rate and safe underground storage. Rewarding BECCS as a negative emission technology depends on efficiency of biomass production, transport and processing for energy use, global carbon cycle feedbacks, and safe storage of carbon dioxide, which together determine net carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere. Sustainable biomass production is essential, especially with regard to trade-offs with competing land use. Negative emissions has an added value compared to avoided emissions, which should be reflected in the price of negative emission ‘credits’, but must be discounted due to global carbon cycle feedbacks. BECCS development will depend on linkages to carbon trading mechanisms and biomass trading. Countries should agree on a standardized framework for accounting and rewarding BECCS and other negative emission technologies. Key policy insights * A standardized framework for sustainable biomass should be adopted. * A standardized framework for accounting and rewarding BECCS should be adopted. * Early government support will enable BECCS development, scale-up and business engagement. * BECCS projects should be designed to maximize learning across various BECCS applications and across other NETs. * BECCS development should be aligned with modalities of the Paris Agreement and market mechanisms. ****************************************** Best regards Asbjørn Torvanger -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to geoengineering+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to geoengineering@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
