UN to release climate assessment report on carbon removal April 4

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says it is set to release the third part of its sixth assessment report on climate change by April 4.

Jim Skea, a professor at Imperial College, London, said the report will focus on methods and technology of capturing and removing carbon from the atmosphere.

Skea said this in an interview with the BBC, which was published on Monday.

TheCable had reported the release of the first and second parts of the report, which focused on the causes and disastrous impact of climate change globally.

The new study, which is the third of such from the IPCC in the past eight months, will focus on mitigation — or what can be done to stop climate change.

“We have a lot more material, this time, on carbon dioxide removal; that is, not putting carbon into the atmosphere, but getting it out again,” he said.

He added that the kind of carbon removal approaches the report will consider will likely include tree planting and agriculture, as well as the more advanced technological approaches that use large machines to remove carbon from the air.

He added that the report will also look into combined approaches, where land is used to grow crops which can be burned for energy while the carbon is captured and buried.

Joyashree Roy, lead author of the report, said the document also looks into “the social science perspective of demand, and what motivates individual consumers, communities, businesses, to make responsible consumption, reduction, design and investment choices”.

“Responsible production and consumption are also within the scope of this chapter, and we have also been asked to look into what are the drivers of behaviour change,” Roy added.

The scientists believe that the climate situation is now critical such that carbon dioxide removal will be needed in addition to massive cuts in emissions.

However, the report which will eventually be published in two weeks will depend on negotiations with government representatives from 195 countries.