Challenges to the use of BECCS as a keystone technology in pursuit of 1.5⁰C

• Published in: Global sustainability Vol. 1
• Main Authors: Gough, Clair, Garcia-Freites, Samira, Jones, Christopher, Mander, Sarah, Moore, Brendan, Pereira, Cristina, Röder, Mirjam, Vaughan, Naomi, Welfle, Andrew
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge Cambridge University Press 2018
• Subjects: Agreements; Atmosphere; Atmospheric models; Aviation; Biodiesel fuels; Biodiversity; Biofuels; Biomass; Biomass energy; Biomass energy production; Budgets; Carbon; Carbon dioxide; Carbon sequestration; Climate change; Climate change mitigation; Climate models; Emission standards; Emissions; Energy; Energy policy; Energy storage; Forests; Fossil fuels; Greenhouse effect; Greenhouse gases; Integrated approach; Land use; Landscape; Moral hazard; Objectives; Paris Agreement; policies; politics and governance; Raw materials; Socioeconomic factors; Storage; Supply chains; Technology; Temperature; Viability
• ISSN: 2059-4798; 2059-4798
• DOI: 10.1017/sus.2018.3

Non-technical summary Biomass energy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is represented in many integrated assessment models as a keystone technology in delivering the Paris Agreement on climate change. This paper explores six key challenges in relation to large scale BECCS deployment and considers ways to address these challenges. Research needs to consider how BECCS fits in the context of other mitigation approaches, how it can be accommodated within existing policy drivers and goals, identify where it fits within the wider socioeconomic landscape, and ensure that genuine net negative emissions can be delivered on a global scale. Technical summary The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Paris Agreement sets a goal of limiting the global temperature increase to “well below 2°C” and to pursue “efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C”. Most emission pathways that are compatible with these goals are heavily reliant on negative emissions technologies (NETs), especially biomass energy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), at a global scale to remove CO 2 from the atmosphere. The use of negative emissions in climate mitigation introduces a complex variety of technologies whose desirability, effectiveness and viability remain highly uncertain. This paper explores six key policy and governance challenges associated with BECCS, suggesting ways in which research could address some of these challenges: 1) How does BECCS fit with carbon budgets? 2) How negative is BECCS? 3) Can BECCS be delivered at sufficient scale? 4) Can sufficient biomass be provided sustainably? 5) How does BECCS fit into the policy context? 6) How does BECCS fit with climate agreements? Consideration of these challenges highlights the importance of a whole systems approach to assessing the use of BECCS and its potential as a keystone technology to deliver negative emissions.