Meeting global temperature targets—the role of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage

By Christian Azar, Daniel J. A. Johansson, N. Mattsson. 2013

169 citations recorded by the source corpus.

In order to meet stringent temperature targets, active removal of CO2 from the atmosphere may be required in the long run. Such negative emissions can be materialized when well-performing bioenergy systems are combined with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). Here, we develop an integrated global energy system and climate model to evaluate the role of BECCS in reaching ambitious temperature targets. We present emission, concentration and temperature pathways towards 1.5 and 2 ° C targets. Our model results demonstrate that BECCS makes it feasible to reach temperature targets that are otherwise out of reach, provided that a temporary overshoot of the target is accepted. Additionally, stringent temperature targets can be met at considerably lower cost if BECCS is available. However, the economic benefit of BECCS nearly vanishes if an overshoot of the temperature target is not allowed. Finally, the least-cost emission pathway over the next 50 years towards a 1.5 ° C overshoot target with BECCS is almost identical to a pathway leading to a 2 ° C ceiling target.

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, Environmental Engineering, Mechanical Engineering

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/973e9df35b3ce28cb70e07dbf3d91dfca0189281

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Economics and Econometrics

1. Felix Creutzig
2. W. Lamb
3. J. Minx
4. Pete Smith
5. Sabine Fuss
6. M. Callaghan
7. Jérôme Hilaire
8. Jens Hartmann

In Environmental Engineering

1. Felix Creutzig
2. Gregory F. Nemet
3. Brian C. O'Neill
4. Pete Smith
5. Katsumasa Tanaka
6. Mathias Fridahl
7. W. Lamb
8. Mariliis Lehtveer

In Mechanical Engineering

1. Sabine Fuss
2. J. Minx
3. M. Callaghan
4. W. Lamb
5. Brian C. O'Neill
6. S. Barrett
7. Pete Smith
8. Mark D. Staples

Citations in the corpus

• Expert assessment concludes negative emissions scenarios may not deliver (2016, background): “Land availability is highly interdependent upon future crop yields and focuses on the fraction (usually up to half) of bioenergy produced by dedicated energy crops; the remaining bioenergy is assumed to come from forestry and waste residues (Azar et al 2013, van Vuuren et al 2013).”
• Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS): Global potential, investment preferences, and deployment barriers (2018, background): “financing opportunities, and competition for land, fertilizers, and water [4,5].”
• Negative emissions—Part 3: Innovation and upscaling (2018, background): “Modeling studies also make the point that scaling up to meaningful levels could take ‘decades’ (Azar et al 2013) or even ‘half a century’ (Azar et al 2010).”
• The Paris Agreement zero-emissions goal is not always consistent with the 1.5 °C and 2 °C temperature targets (2018, methodology): “This research was partially supported by the Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (2-1702) of the Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency, Japan.”
• The limits of bioenergy for mitigating global life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels (2017, background): “Humpenoeder, F. et al. Investigating afforestation and bioenergy CCS as climate change mitigation strategies.”