From Net Zero Emissions To Negative Emissions

As countries move towards the conclusion of the COP28 climate talks, a group led by Denmark sets an ambitious goal: to remove more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it emits. The Group of Negative Emitters, launched by Denmark, Finland, and Panama, aims to achieve this by reducing emissions, protecting and expanding forests, and investing in new technologies.

Panama has already achieved this through its vast forests, while Finland and Denmark aim to follow suit by 2035 and 2045, respectively. Finland's environment minister, Kai Mykkanen, acknowledges that becoming carbon neutral and then carbon negative is a huge challenge but affirms that they are targeting this goal. Denmark's three-fold strategy involves cutting emissions, expanding forests, and investing in carbon capture and removal technology to store planet-warming emissions underground permanently.

Many experts believe that the technology for capturing and storing carbon is compelling but expensive. However, it is still in the early deployment phase and unavailable at scale. According to the International Energy Agency, about 40 large projects for carbon capture are in operation globally, which pull in approximately 45 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide each year. This amount is only a tiny fraction, about 0.1 percent of the 36.8 billion metric tons emitted worldwide, as recorded by the Global Carbon Project.

Nikki Reisch, Climate and Energy Programme Director at the Centre for International Environmental Law, has expressed her scepticism towards carbon capture. She believes decades of carbon capture have shown it ineffective, uneconomic, and risky for communities. She states, "The very industry that has brought us to the brink of climate catastrophe will not save us from it."
 
The environment minister of Denmark, Dan Jorgensen, acknowledges that there is still a long way to go. He said, "Obviously, it's a big step, especially if you wanted to deploy technology that's not yet fully developed." Unlike Panama and Finland, Denmark does not have vast forests and sees new technology as crucial to reaching its targets.

Denmark has recently started working on a new carbon capture facility, expected to be operational by 2026. The country hopes that the project will serve as proof of concept.

"When we decided to build the first offshore wind farm back in 1991, many people thought it was crazy and too expensive," recalled Jorgensen. "However, we went ahead with it, and today, offshore wind energy can compete with fossil fuels in terms of cost almost anywhere in the world. Nearly 50 percent of Denmark's electricity comes from wind energy today."

Finland's Mykkanen believes that carbon capture technology may still seem like "voodoo" to some. Still, he is confident that it will become more widely accepted and normalised in the next 10–15 years as more countries invest in it and costs are driven down.

In the climate talks held in Dubai, technology transfers and financing the energy transition have been the key discussion points. Developing countries are urging the developed world to provide more financing to help them move away from fossil fuels.

According to Harjeet Singh of Climate Action Network International, a two-pronged approach is necessary to tackle the issue of climate change. "Developed countries must reduce their emissions to net negative," said Singh. "At the same time, technology and finance must be transferred to developing countries so that their efforts can be multiplied, as this is where emissions are rising."