{"id":47266,"date":"2022-09-30T17:13:37","date_gmt":"2022-09-30T16:13:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/?p=47266"},"modified":"2022-09-30T17:13:37","modified_gmt":"2022-09-30T16:13:37","slug":"researchers-push-to-make-polluters-put-carbon-back-in-the-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/2022\/09\/30\/researchers-push-to-make-polluters-put-carbon-back-in-the-ground\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers push to make polluters put carbon back in the ground"},"content":{"rendered":"

A group of researchers is ramping up a campaign to make polluters put carbon back in the ground.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As oil and gas companies rake in record profits, a team from Oxford University in the UK is making the case governments should force them to capture and store a share of the emissions from burning their products.<\/p>\n

Myles Allen, director of the Oxford Net Zero initiative, has been developing the Carbon Takeback Obligation<\/a> (CBTO) proposal for a number of years. He argues this will \u201cdecarbonise<\/a>\u201d fossil fuels, accelerate their phase out and develop the capture and removal technologies scientists say<\/a> are needed to limit global warming to 1.5C.<\/p>\n

As Russia’s war against Ukraine wreaks havoc with energy markets, his team is trying to get the idea off academic shelves and into policymakers\u2019 hands. Their aim is to build a club of producer nations to take this forward by next year’s Cop28 climate talks in the United Arab Emirates, at the heart of the world\u2019s top oil producing region<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Critics argue the plan gives companies a licence to keep extracting more climate-harming coal, oil and gas, when the focus should be investment in alternatives.<\/p>\n

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The proposal is based on the principle of producer responsibility, which requires companies to account for the environmental costs of a product throughout its life cycle.<\/p>\n

In practice, this would mean that for every tonne of carbon generated by the continued use of fossil fuels, a tonne of CO2 is permanently stored in geological formation.<\/p>\n

Yet, the technology remains expensive and unproven at large scale<\/a> despite the fossil fuel industry’s repeated claims it has the expertise necessary to make it happen.<\/p>\n

Calling the industry’s bluff<\/h3>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a giant bluff call,\u201d Allen told Climate Home News. \u201cThe industry says it can do it. So fine, do it.\u201d<\/p>\n