C2GLearn
Large-scale Carbon Dioxide Removal and the Sustainable Development Goals
This topic aims to raise awareness of large-scale Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) techniques and their impacts on the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to an audience somewhat familiar with the basic concepts of CDR. It seeks to answer the following questions:
- What are the potential implications (physical, socio-economic or political) of a possible deployment of CDR for delivering the SDGs?
- What knowledge/research gaps exist around CDR and its potential implications for delivery of the SDGs?
- What governance gaps need to be addressed to maximise positive impacts and minimise negative trade-offs with regards to the SDGs?
- How might some of the governance challenges be considered or addressed in the context of current governance processes and mechanisms?
Webinars
This Webinar features three ten-minute expert overviews of large-scale CDR approaches, and their impacts on the delivery of the SDGs. It is followed by a half hour moderated Q&A session, during which audience members are invited to submit written questions via the Zoom chat. Speakers include:
David Morrow / United States of America
Dr. David Morrow is Director of Research at the Institute for Carbon Removal Law and Policy (ICRLP) at American University in Washington, DC, as well as a Research Fellow at George Mason University’s Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy. His research focuses on normative issues in climate policy, including the ethics and governance of carbon removal. He leads ICRLP’s work on developing tools to assess the sustainability of various approaches to carbon removal. He holds a PhD in Philosophy from The Graduate Center of The City University of New York and an MA in Public Policy from the University of Chicago. His most recent book, Values in Climate Policy, came out in 2019.
Matthias Honegger / Switzerland
Matthias Honegger is a research associate with the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, climate policy consultant with Perspectives Climate Research, and PhD candidate at Utrecht University. After his Masters in environmental sciences from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology he has worked on sectoral mitigation policies, national mitigation targets, UNFCCC negotiations and the emerging governance of geoengineering. Matthias researches differences in climate policy negotiators’ and observers’ views of solar geoengineering and carbon removal, their roots in diverging values and worldviews and the resulting tensions between popular expectations, economic models and actual policy planning and implementation. He is author and co-author on several articles, commentaries and reports on issues of policy design for carbon dioxide removal and solar radiation management geoengineering and has led the first assessment of potential effects that deployment of such technologies could have on the pursuit of the entirety of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Thelma Krug / Brazil
Thelma Krug is a former researcher at the Earth Observation Coordination at the National Institute for Space Research in Brazil, under the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communication (MCTIC). She was elected Vice-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for the Sixth Cycle of Panel (October 2015 – October 2022), after having been co-chair of the IPCC Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories from 2002 until 2015. She holds a PhD on Spatial Statistics from the University of Sheffield, UK. She has been Deputy National Secretary at the Secretary on Policies and Programs of Science and Technology at MCTIC; National Secretary at the Secretary on Climate Change and Environmental Quality from the Ministry of the Environment (MMA) and Director of the Department on Policies to Combat Deforestation under the Secretary of Climate Change and Forests at MMA. For more than 15 years she represented Brazil in the negotiations at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), with particular focus on issues related to land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF); research and systematic observations; and reporting guidelines. Her main areas of interest are climate change and the role of deforestation, forest degradation and land-use change; REDD+; and national greenhouse gas inventories.
Moderator: Alia Hassan / France
Alia Hassan is an international relations expert, and an Outreach Officer at C2G in charge of engaging governments and intergovernmental organisations. With over 10 years of experience in Latin America and the Middle East, she specialises in sustainability, education and culture, and working with governments and international organisations to build strategic alliances. Before joining C2G, Alia worked with UNDP as Project Coordinator where she supported the Government of Ecuador’s efforts to strengthen the country’s climate change governance.
Alia holds a MSc Degree in Political Science from the University of Quebec in Montreal, and a BSc in Communication Science from the University of Montreal.
Introduction
Presentations
Slide presentations:
- Thelma Krug The role of CDR in IPCC pathways to limit global warming to Paris goals [pdf]
- Matthias Honegger Key CDR approaches and their implications for delivering the SDGs [pdf]
- David Morrow CDR and the SDGs: Governance Challenges and Gaps [pdf]
Q&A (Webinar 1)
Q&A (Webinar 2)
Campfire Chat
This Campfire Chat aims to provide insights into diverse viewpoints on large-scale Carbon Dioxide Removal and the Sustainable Development Goals (presented in the webinar above), in a relatively informal, moderated, semi-structured discussion between experts. Audience members are invited to suggest topics via the Zoom chat. Guests include:
Jennifer Wilcox / United States of America
Jennifer Wilcox is the Presidential Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering and Energy Policy at University of Pennsylvania, and leads the World Resources Institute’s Carbon Removal Plan as a Senior Fellow. She joins University of Pennsylvania and WRI following appointment as the James H. Manning Chaired Professor of Chemical Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Having grown up in rural Maine, Wilcox has a profound respect and appreciation of nature, which permeates her work as she focuses on minimising negative impacts of humankind on our natural environment.
Wilcox’s research takes aim at the nexus of energy and the environment, developing both mitigation and adaptation strategies to minimise negative climate impacts associated with society’s dependence on fossil fuels. This work carefully examines the role of carbon management and opportunities therein that could assist in preventing 2° C warming by 2100. Carbon management includes a mix of technologies spanning from the direct removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to its capture from industrial, utility-scale and microemitter (motor vehicle) exhaust streams, followed by utilisation or reliable storage of carbon dioxide on a timescale and magnitude that will have a positive impact on our current climate change crisis. Funding for her research is primarily sourced through the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy and the private sector. She has served on a number of committees including the National Academy of Sciences and the American Physical Society to assess carbon capture methods and impacts on climate. She is the author of the first textbook on carbon capture, published in March 2012.
Martin Frick / Germany
Martin Frick is currently serving as Deputy Special Envoy for the Food System Summit 2021. He served before as the Senior Director of UN Climate Change where he was overseeing the implementation of the Paris Agreement and the secretariat’s Climate Action work. He previously served as Director for Climate Change at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
He was the German representative for human rights and humanitarian affairs at the UN General Assembly and served as the European Union’s lead negotiator in the establishment of the UN Human Rights Council. As Ambassador to the international organizations based in Germany, he helped building up the UN’s sustainability hub in Bonn. As program director for former Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Global Humanitarian Forum, Martin developed the founding narrative of climate justice. He holds a PhD in Law from Regensburg University and was a guest lecturer at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin.
Youba Sokona / Mali
Youba Sokona was elected Vice-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in October 2015. Prior to this, Youba Sokona was Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group III on the mitigation of climate change for the Fifth Assessment Report after serving as a Lead Author since 1990. Youba Sokona is currently the Special Advisor for Sustainable Development at the South Centre. With over 35 years of experience addressing energy, environment and sustainable development in Africa, Youba Sokona is a well-known, leading global figure. In addition to these achievements, Youba Sokona has a proven track record of organisational leadership and management, for example as Coordinator of the African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) and as Executive Secretary of the Sahara and the Sahel Observatory (OSS). Youba Sokona’s advice is highly sought after, and as such, he is affiliated with numerous boards and organisations, including as a Member of the Board for the Institute of Development Studies, Honorary Professor at the University College London (UCL), and as a Special Advisor to the African Energy Leaders Group. In short, Youba Sokona is a global figure, with deep technical knowledge, extensive policy experience and an unreserved personal commitment to African-led development.Moderator: Janos Pasztor / Hungary & Switzerland
Janos Pasztor (a Hungarian and a Swiss citizen) is Senior Fellow of the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, and is Executive Director of the Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative (C2G).
He has four decades of work experience in the areas of energy, environment, climate change, and sustainable development. Before taking up his current assignment he was UN Assistant Secretary-General for Climate Change in New York under Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Earlier, he was Acting Executive Director for Conservation (2014), and Policy and Science Director (2012-2014), at WWF International. He directed the UNSG’s Climate Change Support Team (2008-2010) and later was Executive Secretary of the UNSG’s High-level Panel on Global Sustainability (2010-2012). In 2007 he directed the Geneva-based UN Environment Management Group (EMG). During 1993-2006 he worked and over time held many responsibilities at the Climate Change Secretariat (UNFCCC), initially in Geneva and later in Bonn.
His other assignments included: the Secretariat of the UN Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit ’92); Stockholm Environment Institute; United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP); Secretariat of the World Commission on Environment and Development (Brundtland Commission); the Beijer Institute; and the World Council of Churches.
He has BSc and MSc degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
C2G strives to achieve a diversity of views and backgrounds across all its events. To that end, it is always open to feedback and suggestions regarding future participants and topics, to ensure a range of perspectives by sector, gender, race, geography, age and other dimensions. It will not always achieve the necessary diversity in all circumstances due to issues of availability and familiarity, but aims over time to expand the range of contributors able to address its issues, subject to the broad principles outlined in its mission statement.
