EU’s carbon removal strategy distraction from climate goals, say environmental groups

The European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change (ESABCC), Civil Society Organisations and Climate Justice Groups are reiterating that carbon markets and carbon dioxide removals are a dangerous distraction and a false solution. Instead, they will accelerate the climate crisis further.

According to Hands Off Mother Earth! (HOME) Alliance, an international civil society network of close to 200 organizations from over 45 different countries, from the Global South and the Global North, there is mounting evidence that carbon markets do not deliver real emissions reductions and often lead to human rights abuses, land grabs, and violations of the rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Speaking on the launch of the report “Scaling Up Carbon Dioxide Removals – Recommendations For Navigating Opportunities And Risks In The EU”, They argued, that Geoengineering technofixes like Direct Air Capture (DAC), Carbon Capture Use and Storage (CCUS), and Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS), are a risky and speculative false solution which do not address the root causes of the climate crisis.

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“Instead, they offer a distraction from genuine solutions like just transition from fossil fuels, restoration and conservation of ecosystems, and support for community-led and governed initiatives that address the climate crisis at its roots. They give a free pass to the biggest polluting industries to continue polluting,” the group said.

Late last year, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) made a decision to reinforce the precautionary approach to geoengineering and reaffirmed the existing de facto global moratorium on geoengineering.

In her words, Linda Schneider, senior International climate policy officer at Heinrich Boell Foundation said “The EU is looking to scale up Carbon Dioxide Removals, but these technological approaches to remove CO2 from the atmosphere at large volumes have huge uncertainties.

“They have not been proven to work, especially at scale. In fact, they have been shown to come with many known and unknown impacts and side effects for communities and the environment. What is referred to as “permanent removals” in the ESABCC report is not actually permanent: Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is unsafe, unreliable and leads to more and continued emissions.”

She noted that “While a lot can and must be done in the land sector in Europe to protect and restore natural ecosystems so they can help draw down CO2, this must not be used to allow for continued emissions from fossil fuels and industry.”

Coraina de la Plaza, Global Coordination, Hands Off Mother Earth! (HOME) Alliance said “The EU potentially scaling-up Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) technologies is bad news for the climate crisis. While CDR technologies are often touted as a solution to the climate crisis, they are far from being a silver bullet.

“These technologies are mainly unproven at scale, expensive, and risky. They rely on untested assumptions about their long-term effectiveness and permanence. Rather than placing our hopes in speculative, unproven solutions like CDR technologies, we must prioritize immediate, real rights-based climate solutions actions to drive ambition and the real transformation we need to mitigate the climate crisis.”