Carbon removal – A crucial part of the race to net zero
In addition to drastically reducing our CO2 emissions, scientists agree that we also need negative emissions from Carbon Removal to mitigate climate change in accordance with the Paris Agreement.
Negative emissions means removing CO2 from the atmosphere – “Carbon Removal”.
The natural carbon cycle on Earth circulates carbon in a balance. Since the start of the industrialism in mid 19th century, humans have disruted the balance by rapidly releasing fossil stored carbon through the burning of coal, oil and gas. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has greatly increased because the earth’s natural capacity to buffer changes has not been not enough. On global level, humans have also reduced many ecosystems and thus reduced the earth’s ability to capture and store carbondioxid.
Carbon dioxide is a green house gas that remains in the atmosphere for hundreds of years. It is not enough only to reduce emissions. We also need to “repair” and remove large parts of our historical emissions.
The importance of negative emissions
A common term for projects that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is called CDR (Carbon Dioxide Removals). The Forest Solution has developed a methodology for CDR that additionally increases the biomass and carbon dioxide storage in Swedish forests. We have the potential to annually remove and sequester more than 2 million tons of carbon dioxide with the help of companies that want to buy carbon credits.
Net Zero and Science based targets
UN:s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement have determined that we need to limit global warming, which occurs as a result of excessive levels of Co2 in the atmosphere, to below 2 degrees C, preferably a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius. Initiatives and frameworks has been created to help companies to achieve this and set climate goals and strategies so that they align with the Paris Agreement and based on scientific consensus.
One initiative is Science based Targets Initiative, SBTi. Joining SBTi Net Zero Standard you set a target and you must achieve “Net Zero” by 2050 at the latest. Many other framworks or roadmaps are available for companies to help reaching serious goals targeting mitigating climate change.
Target Net zero means that companies must cut 50 % in the near term target and 90% of their emissions in the long term targets. The last 10% is often very hard to reduce and can be removed via measures of CDR – which permanently stores carbon dioxide.
The Forest Solution as a part of Science Based Targets
“The climate issue can not wait,” it is said. A company’s journey towards Net Zero may take several years, meanwhile emissions increases the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which both complicates the challenge and increases the need for CDR in the future. Recently the report on “The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal”was launched where the importance of CDR projects was highlighted. Read DN:s summery of the report in this article.
The Forest Solution is a low cost and additional European option for Carbon removals that can be used by your company within SBTi. In the transition to net-zero (step 3 in the figure). Most of the addtional sequestration takes place above ground and is stored for + 50 years. About 20 % of our methodologys carbon storage occurs in the soils underground and is stored much longer than the part above-ground. The below ground part of the Carbon removal can be used for neutralisation of residual emissions (4 in the figuren). We are currently investigating the duration of that storage together with scientists. We get back to you in this subject shortly.
