Co-producing climate policy and negative emissions: trade-offs for sustainable land-use

Under the Paris Agreement, nations have committed to preventing dangerous global warming. Scenarios for achieving net-zero emissions in the second half of this century depend on land (forests and bioenergy) to remove carbon from the atmosphere. Modelled levels of land-based mitigation could reduce t...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Kate Dooley, Peter Christoff, Kimberly A. Nicholas
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press 2018-01-01
Series:Global Sustainability
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2059479818000066/type/journal_article
Description
Summary:Under the Paris Agreement, nations have committed to preventing dangerous global warming. Scenarios for achieving net-zero emissions in the second half of this century depend on land (forests and bioenergy) to remove carbon from the atmosphere. Modelled levels of land-based mitigation could reduce the availability of productive agricultural land, and encroach on natural land, with potentially significant social and environmental consequences. However, these issues are poorly recognized in the policy-uptake of modelled outputs. Understanding how science and policy interact to produce expectations about mitigation pathways allows us to consider the trade-offs inherent in relying on land for mitigation.
ISSN:2059-4798