A paired clustered approach to negative emissions

I agree that the role of negative emissions is overlooked, in the rush to reduce future carbon emissions, and believe the response to this can be started by applying the methods mentioned in this article to a paired cluster of climate solutions.

For example, refrigerant management being one of the biggest potential sources of carbon emissions, could be paired with afforestation targets. Each government mandates to match the carbon reductions from industries switching to climate friendly solutions for chillers, fridges and air conditioners with a massive swatch of afforestation. I’m a practical guy, so here’s an example.

For every 50 pounds of refrigerant disposed of, that countries government match the equivalent CO2 emitted with CO2 sequestering activity. Then, over time, apply a sliding balancing rule between industry on and government on the payment of the sequestering activity.

That way, instead of a tax it is a matching scheme that both incentivises a reduction in new CO2 and sequesters existing CO2 in equal measure. The weakness to this approach is that little carbon is removed from the atmosphere if the transition to low carbon alternatives is relatively fast. Not a bad outcome, but a less good one.