Net Zero
Description
Wolfgang Knorr:
"Simulations by computer models show that more or less shortly after reaching global net zero emissions, warming would stop. Where ‘net zero’ means that all human-made emissions of carbon dioxide, or CO2, where they still exist, will be compensated by equally large fluxes of CO2 into so-called ‘carbon sinks’. Because CO2 mixes rapidly in the atmosphere, it does not matter where the greenhouse gas is emitted, and where it is taken up. In other words, zero emissions are unnecessary, net zero is already good enough.
This is exactly the point where it gets tricky: the seemingly insignificant prefix ‘net’ was initially meant to apply to only very few essential but difficult to mitigate carbon emissions, for example from essential agriculture. In purely mathematical terms, however, the little word ‘net’ allows someone to hide arbitrarily large emissions, such as from fossil-fuel burning. The only requirement is to find equally large carbon sinks – ready is the net-zero scenario. Ready only in a mathematical sense, because until today no realistic plans exist for the deployment of the massive carbon sinks that would allow a continuation of business-as-usual. This does not prevent the latest IPCC report from containing a whole range of essentially science-fiction scenarios, where fossil fuel burning persists decades beyond the point where ‘net zero’ is supposed to have been reached."
(https://braveneweurope.com/wolfgang-knorr-why-net-zero-is-a-trap)
Discussion
The concept of net zero is a dangerous trap
James Dyke et al. :
"The current consensus is that if we deploy these and other so-called “carbon dioxide removal” techniques at the same time as reducing our burning of fossil fuels, we can more rapidly halt global warming. Hopefully around the middle of this century we will achieve “net zero”. This is the point at which any residual emissions of greenhouse gases are balanced by technologies removing them from the atmosphere.
This is a great idea, in principle. Unfortunately, in practice it helps perpetuate a belief in technological salvation and diminishes the sense of urgency surrounding the need to curb emissions now.
We have arrived at the painful realisation that the idea of net zero has licensed a recklessly cavalier “burn now, pay later” approach which has seen carbon emissions continue to soar. It has also hastened the destruction of the natural world by increasing deforestation today, and greatly increases the risk of further devastation in the future."
(https://theconversation.com/climate-scientists-concept-of-net-zero-is-a-dangerous-trap-157368)