Human and Planetary Health Implications of Negative Emissions Technologies

Are the risks and costs associated with the large-scale deployment of NETPs worth their potential benefits?

📄This article co-authored by NEGEM partners Selene Cobo and Gonzalo GuillĂ©n-GosĂĄlbez and published in Nature Communication, assesses the impacts on human health of deploying negative emissions technologies such as DACCS and BECCS at scale. 

Highlights
đŸ”” DACCS and BECCS could preserve a substantial number of years of healthy life that would otherwise be lost due to climate change.
Removing 5.9 Gtonne/year of CO2 can prevent up to 900 disability-adjusted life years per million people annually (DALY), a time-based measure that represents the loss of the equivalent of one year of full health according to WHO.

đŸ”” This is a health burden similar to Parkinson, so avoiding it could generate savings in externalities up to 148 US$/tonne CO2, an amount comparable to the levelized costs of NETS. Quantifying the NETs payback in terms of health externalities could incentivize their deployment.

🌎 DACCS can avert damage to the biosphere without challenging other biophysical limits (impacts ≀2% of the safe operating space), while BECCS would exert substantial pressure on the planetary boundaries.

🌐 However the performance of NETs will ultimately depend on their location; thus, a portfolio of negative emissions technologies and practices will probably be needed.

Find the article here https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-30136-7
Follow us and find out more NEGEM results https://www.negemproject.eu/results/

More News

NEGEM Final Event Summary

The final event of NEGEM project Visions and Pathways for Carbon Dioxide Removal in the EU took place at the Square Brussels Convention Centre on

Assessment of global theoretical CDR potentials

The goal of net-zero emissions aligns with the Paris Agreement, requiring a combination of reducing emissions and using Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) techniques. However, skepticism