Carbon Dioxide Removal Technologie
The need to actively remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere is becoming increasingly important in the scientific debate. There seems to be a consensus that reducing greenhouse gas emissions alone is no longer enough to achieve the climate target.
In order to limit the negative effects of global warming, it is therefore essential to further develop technologies that have the potential to actively remove existing CO2 from the atmosphere in addition to measures to reduce emissions. Such measures are generally referred to as CDR (Carbon Dioxide Removal).
It is important to note that active GHG removal measures are not a substitute for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Rather, they should be seen as an accompanying measure to tackle the challenges of climate change. In addition, it is essential to ensure that such technologies are sustainable.
In principle, there are two further challenges
that an effective climate concept should take into account in connection with CDR:
Technologies such as CDR can help to reduce the atmospheric CO2 content and thus reduce the greenhouse effect. They should therefore be economically interesting on a global scale, for large, well-funded companies. Otherwise, this technology scales too small and does not exploit its potential on the required scale.
An additional important fact: our economic system enables the phenomenon of excess wealth. The associated overconsumption (in the sense of consumption outside planetary boundaries) is associated with a significantly disproportionate carbon footprint. A well-functioning GHG quota system must also be able to reflect the reality of these people's lives, otherwise it is hardly feasible.
So we need a system design which ...
→ on the one hand, rewards industry financially if it actively removes CO2 from the atmosphere through CDR and stores it permanently
→ and on the other hand also offers a climate-neutral solution for fossil based overconsumption (of rich people).
Personal Carbon Trading (PCT) as an accompanying regulatory framework
With the ECO (Earth Carbon Obligation) climate currency, there is now a model that works completely without taxation or certificate trading for industry, as it includes a system for the allocation, pricing and billing of all CO2 equivalents generated along the entire value chain. Cap, Personalize and Trade (CPT) envisages that every citizen receives an equal, personal and tradable emissions budget as an ecological basic income to pay for individual fossil fuel consumption. This concept takes a new approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by enabling seamless recording, transparent mapping and fair billing of our individual CO2 consumption.
How CDR can be meaningfully integrated into a contingent complementary carbon resource currency (CPT) system
The simplified equation: money = consumption = emissions, describes the inseparable causality between consumption and climate-damaging emissions (as long as our goods and services are not yet generally climate-neutral). If the active removal of CO2 from the atmosphere is remunerated with money, the following problem arises: The additional capital inevitably causes additional consumption, and this in turn produces additional emissions. It would therefore be a left pocket - right pocket scenario, or a zero-sum game.
If we want to use CDR to sustainably reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, it is essential to limit our entire fossil fuel consumption through personal CO2 budgets and to combine CDR technology with an accompanying, complementary and GHG-contingent climate currency system.
The ECO climate currency model offers a solution that is worthwhile for both industry and citizens. In this system, industry inherently has no CO2 budget of its own. Commercial CDR is therefore remunerated in EURO (not in ECO). In such a system, the active removal of CO2 generates additional money and therefore additional consumption. However, the additional capital gained cannot be used for further fossil fuel consumption.
This is the only way to ensure that euros “mined” through CDR (e.g. by financially strong companies) do not counteract the maximum limit of permitted emissions. A stringently self-contained control loop that helps to reliably reduce net emissions within the economic area.
»Through the mandatory combination of the economic price of our consumption
with the contingent climate currency ECO, the additional purchasing power of the Euros
generated from commercial CDR is subject to the fixed maximum limit of permitted emissions.
GHG emissions cannot increase as a result of the additional money,
as fossil fuel consumption is subject to the “corset” of the limited total ECO spending volume. «
How CDR can be used as a climate-neutral option for overconsumption
Private individuals who invest in CDR have the opportunity to “mine” ECO so that they can continue to lead a lifestyle characterized by overconsumption - but in a climate-neutral way. This is because the total GHG emissions remain the same (zero-sum game), although the climate-damaging consumption increases due to the additional ECO.
For (wealthy) private individuals, investments in this technology are therefore interesting in order to continue the established reality of life within the contingent climate currency system through the possibility of additionally created CO2 equivalents. However, the withdrawal and renewed release are always subject to the limiting corset of the climate currency. In this way, a defined reduction path can be reliably adhered to, as the amount issued by the ECO corresponds exactly to the remaining emissions budget.
» CDR by private individuals, remunerated in ECO,
does not result in absolute CO2 removal from the atmosphere,
but it does help to ensure a balance between release and removal.
This measure enables genuine climate-neutral (over)consumption. «
Influence of CDR measures on the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere
CDR remunerated in local currency for industry represents a financial incentive for companies to invest in and operate this technology. However, this does not increase the total amount of ECO
spent (as it is remunerated in money). Expenditure from the additional money is subject to the ECO volume limit. Consequently, no additional GHG emissions can arise from this, as these are
subject to the “corset” of the unchanged total ECO expenditure volume.
As a result the absolute CO2 concentration decreases!
This offers two control options:
1) either faster achievement of the emissions reduction target
2) or a flatter emissions reduction curve
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