Fossil fuel producers should help world reach netzero, say scientists

Fossil fuel companies should be forced to “take back” the carbon dioxide emitted from their products, handing them direct responsibility for cleaning up the climate, a group of scientists has argued.

The principle that the producer of pollution should pay for its clean-up is established around the world, but has never been applied to the climate crisis.

The companies that profit from extracting fossil fuels – oil, gas and coal producers around the world – should be paying for an equivalent quantity of carbon dioxide to be stored geologically as a condition of being allowed to operate, he argued.

Under a “carbon takeback obligation”, all fossil fuels extracted or imported into a nation or group of nations would be offset by storing underground an amount of carbon dioxide equivalent to that generated by that fuel. Phased in over time, it could be used to store 100% of emissions by 2050, to help the world reach net zero.

Unlike a carbon tax, which discourages the use of fossil fuels by making them more expensive, the authors of the paper argued that such a system would ensure the effect on the climate was neutralised, and the cost of doing so would be part of the cost of fossil fuel production.

Although carbon capture and storage technology is expensive at present, within a few decades it is likely to come down sharply in price, according to the paper.

This would enable the storage of carbon dioxide in the “geosphere” – underground – rather than the biosphere, in the form of forests and vegetation, which stores carbon but is under pressure as so much land is needed for growing food around the world.

The group pointed out that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the body of the world’s leading climate scientists, has made clear that limiting global temperatures to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, which is necessary to avoid the worst ravages of climate breakdown, is likely to require the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as well as the phasing out fossil fuels and the rapid deployment of renewable energy.

Carbon takebacks could work alongside carbon border taxes, or carbon border adjustment mechanisms (CBAMs), by penalising or preventing imports from countries that do not impose some form of carbon reduction obligation on their industries.

The climate meetings need urgently to start discussing such measures before the target gets irrevocably out of reach, the scientists opined.