Oceans, Forests Should Not Count Toward Emission Reduction Targets, Warns Imperial Study

Imperial College London has said through a new study that countries' net zero targets should not include the natural absorption of carbon dioxide from oceans and forests.

Study in UK: A new study by Imperial College London has warned that if countries will include natural carbon sinks in their emission targets, the world will keep heating even after achieving net-zero which is the state of overall balance between emissions produced and removed from the atmosphere.

Most countries are aiming for net zero emissions by 2050 under the 2015 Paris Agreement. The UK has also signed this agreement.

Professor Joeri Rogelj of Climate Science and Policy at the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial and the Director of Research at the Grantham Institute is also the co-author of the paper.

Professor Joeri Rogelj said, “Targets should distinguish between emissions reductions, geological removals that effectively put CO2 away forever, and any climate mitigation action that draws on forests or storing carbon in nature. Failing to do so muddies the waters and our understanding of whether and when we could stop global warming."

Countries Need To Announce New Emission Reduction Target Soon

Imperial College London's study also suggested that all the countries which are part of the Paris Agreement must come up with a new 2035 emission reduction target which can help significantly in achieving the net zero target.

The study said that even when the net zero target was established, the idea was not to include these natural CO2 reductions toward overall emission reductions but now many countries are turning toward them to meet the emission targets without working on gas, oil and coal which are the main contributors towards the global warming.

Dr Glen Peters, of the CICERO Centre for International Climate Research in Oslo, Norway and a co-author of the study, said, “Countries report both emissions and removals, but using all removals in climate targets is a recipe for continued warming. Natural carbon sinks currently clean up around half our annual emissions for free, but this ecosystem service must be kept separate from the fossil emissions driving climate change. Relabelling things will not stop global warming.”

Professor Myles Allen, Head of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics at the University of Oxford and lead author of the study, added, “We are already counting on forests and oceans to mop up our past emissions, most of which came from burning stuff we dug out of the ground. We can’t expect them to compensate for future emissions as well. By mid-century, any carbon that still comes out of the ground will have to go back down, to permanent storage. That’s geological net zero.”

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