TY - JOUR

T1 - Undoing equivalence

T2 - Rethinking carbon accounting for just carbon removal

AU - Carton, Wim

AU - Lund, Jens Friis

AU - Dooley, Kate

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - Concerns are increasingly raised over the centrality of carbon removal in climate policy, particularly in the guise of ‘net-zero’ targets. Most significantly perhaps, treating emissions and removals as equivalent obscures emission reductions, resulting in ‘mitigation deterrence’. Yet the conflation of emission reductions and removals is only one among several implicit equivalences in carbon removal accounting. Here we examine three other forms – carbon, geographical and temporal equivalence - and discuss their implications for climate justice and the environmental risks with carbon removal. We conclude that ‘undoing’ these equivalences would further a just response to the climate crisis and tentatively explore what such undoing might look like in practice.

AB - Concerns are increasingly raised over the centrality of carbon removal in climate policy, particularly in the guise of ‘net-zero’ targets. Most significantly perhaps, treating emissions and removals as equivalent obscures emission reductions, resulting in ‘mitigation deterrence’. Yet the conflation of emission reductions and removals is only one among several implicit equivalences in carbon removal accounting. Here we examine three other forms – carbon, geographical and temporal equivalence - and discuss their implications for climate justice and the environmental risks with carbon removal. We conclude that ‘undoing’ these equivalences would further a just response to the climate crisis and tentatively explore what such undoing might look like in practice.

U2 - 10.3389/fclim.2021.664130

DO - 10.3389/fclim.2021.664130

M3 - Journal article

VL - 3

JO - Frontiers in Climate

JF - Frontiers in Climate

SN - 2624-9553

M1 - 664130

ER -