Saudi leads push to elevate carbon removal in UN climate science report

Saudi leads push to elevate carbon removal in UN climate science report

Fossil-fuel producing nations lobbied on key aspects of the UN climate report released this week, with carbon capture technology emerging as one of the flashpoints in eleventh-hour discussions between government negotiators signing off on the definitive climate change research.

Discussions were sent into overtime as carbon capture and storage and carbon dioxide removal technologies featured among the issues thrashed out in debate about the final wording of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change “summary for policymakers” at meetings in Interlaken, Switzerland.

The report concludedthat global warming in the near-term was “more likely than not” to see a rise in temperature of 1.5C since pre-industrial times and called for urgent action to address climate change.

During the negotiations among researchers and policymakers over the final wording, Saudi Arabian representatives pushed for an emphasis on the technologies that aim to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

This caused consternation among other participants who wanted a greater focus on cutting emissions “rather than relying on unproven technologies”, people familiar with the talks said.

While the latest UN report acknowledged the role that carbon capture and storage could play in reducing emissions, the authors cautioned that such technologies came with “feasibility and sustainability concerns”. 

“Implementation of CCS currently faces