Stimulating discussion and thought at COP28

The Centre for Climate Repair will be hosting events which open up the thinking in the COP28 event to actions beyond Emissions Reduction. 

Whilst emissions reductions are of course absolutely critical, there is no pathway to 1.5C considered by the IPCC which relies just on rapid decarbonisation. But most of the actions being considered in the COP process are focused on emissions reduction.

Our Director Dr Shaun Fitzgerald OBE FREng indicated that:

At COP28 I hope to further raise awareness of the need to go beyond emissions reduction. Although the various scenarios considered by the IPCC include aspects of greenhouse gas removal, we are a long way from knowing which of the various approaches might be game-changer for our climate. Which ones are scalable in the timescales we need? Which ones help society in ways beyond tackling climate change?

 

We also need to talk about the massive gap in our understanding of other further potential inventions such as ice thickening or seabed curtains. These potential interventions might help protect some of our polar regions and buy us more time to actually get greenhouse gas levels down. But conversely some of them may in fact make things worse – we simply don’t know, and we need to fill the knowledge gap urgently so that society can make more informed decisions about the path it wishes to follow.

The Centre for Climate Repair will be engaging audiences using a range of panellists from different backgrounds, contexts and ages in order to stimulate discussion and thought as to other potential actions which we might consider. These include a range of Greenhouse Gas Removal (GGR) approaches spanning from purely nature-based ones to fully engineered solutions. 

Dr Antoinette Nestor, Engagement Manager said:

Having a variety of voices, opinions and backgrounds is a healthy way to lead the conversation about climate repair forward. The multidisciplinary nature of this area of research makes it an essential part of any portfolio looking at possible climate solutions either within science, law or policy”.

The Centre will also be looking at the timescales involved in scaling up GGR approaches and think further about what this means for vulnerable communities, and what actions could be considered to help stave off the worst effects of climate change whilst scale-up of GGR occurs. There are various ideas for Refreezing the Arctic including Marine Cloud Brightening, Stratospheric Aerosol Injection and even pumping of sea water onto the top of sea ice. However, none of these have been properly developed and we will discuss the challenges involved in furthering our understanding of these technologies, and whether they could in fact help in the journey to a 1.5C world.

Please join us in-person or virtually at COP28 and get in touch with any queries you may have. You can follow our programme of events here or have a quick look at scan the QR code below.