Science shows that – even with the most ambitious decarbonisation scenarios – we still need substantial carbon removals. But will a focus on removals encourage people to carry on polluting? Are natural removals too temporary and will they come at the expense of social justice and biodiversity? Can engineered solutions tackle the problems without creating new ones?
- June 16, 2022
Carbon removals: How to distinguish the good, the bad and the very ugly
- TED Countdown New York
In June, TED Countdown hosted a Dilemma Session in New York focusing on the role of carbon credits in climate action. Gabrielle Walker and Delia Meth-Cohn of Rethinking Removals joined forces with Julio Friedmann (Carbon Direct) and Eli Mitchell-Larson (Carbon Gap) to design and present a workshop on carbon removals. We were aiming to focus on understanding quality criteria such as additionality and durability - but we started by looking at why we see carbon removals as a source of hope for climate action, not as climate denial or and moral hazard.
Here, Delia takes us through the stages of that event.