http://energy.umich.edu/research/projects/beyond-carbon-neutral
Beyond Carbon Neutral Faculty: Mark A. Barteau John M. DeCicco Disciplines: Biofuels, Fuels and Chemistry, Combustion,Energy Materials, Energy Policy, Living and Design, Nuclear, Policy and Social Impact,Sustainability Beyond Carbon Neutral is a major new initiative to develop technologies, programs and policies to rapidly raise the rate at which carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere. Global climate change is a defining challenge of the 21st century and efforts to address it have many dimensions. Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through higher energy efficiency, using solar, wind and nuclear energy, deploying carbon capture and storage (CCS), reducing deforestation, reducing methane emissions and minimizing other causes of excessive radiative forcing are all important. No one option will suffice and it is crucial to integrate technology solutions with policy drivers. Because the carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted by fossil fuel use is the largest source of anthropogenic GHG emissions, the climate challenge is often characterized as the need to "decarbonize" the economy by eliminating fossil fuels. However, carbon is literally the fuel of life; the natural carbon cycle annually circulates twenty times as much carbon as released from fossil fuels and the majority is biogenic carbon fixed through photosynthesis. Although rapid release of fossil carbon is the primary cause of rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations, the real problem is an imbalance in the carbon cycle rather than fossil fuel use per se. Thus, the real need is to bring the carbon cycle into balance and eventually restore a global net carbon sink. Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) refers to actions that remove CO2 from the atmosphere on a net basis and secure it as some form of fixed carbon in the biosphere or geosphere. Although often viewed as a long-term climate stabilization mechanism, CDR is a scalable near-term mitigation measure as well as crucial for making a transition to a carbon-balanced (as opposed to "fossil-free") energy system. CDR is particularly important for addressing transportation-related CO2 emissions because of the high value that liquid hydrocarbon fuels have for mobility and the impracticality of capturing CO2 from tailpipes and jet exhausts. What distinguishes CDR from other climate protection strategies is that it is not about reducing emissions, i.e., decreasing the rate at which an activity emits CO2 to progressively lower levels and eventually down to zero (a "carbon neutral" state). Rather, it is about increasing the rate of negative emissions, i.e., going "beyond carbon neutral" to speed up the net downward flow of CO2 from the atmosphere into various forms of fixed carbon. A well-known example of CDR is reforestation, which by itself can increase the negative emissions rate for some decades but not necessarily permanently. Although not usually seen in this light, bioenergy is helpful only if its production involves CDR. For example, biofuel use does not reduce tailpipe CO2 emissions in the transportation sector and so any benefit depends on whether biofuel feedstock production increases the rate at which CO2 is removed from the atmosphere in other sectors. At present, CDR is under-researched, under-developed and under-appreciated by policymakers and the public. No coherent science, technology and policy strategy exists to systematically research, develop, test, refine and scale up CDR on a par with the efforts underway to reduce GHG emissions. Beyond Carbon Neutral will fill this gap through a major interdisciplinary research, development, education, community engagement, industrial partnership and policy analysis initiative led by the University of Michigan. ​Staff contacts: Susan Fancy, Daniel Raimi -- 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 [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
