Land-based carbon-dioxide removal in the Paris climate agreement

Land-based mitigation under the climate convention has long been subject to a ‘politics of expertise’ approach, where technical debates over accounting rules obscure political intentions. This seminar examines the inclusion of land-based mitigation in the Paris Agreement, and the resulting expectations for future ‘negative emissions’ via biotic carbon sequestration. Kate presents a risk evaluation framework to assess negative emissions against sustainable development goals. This research highlights the need to make explicit the values and assumptions embedded in the co-production of science and policy, and how accounting for societal values becomes a mutual responsibility for scientists and policy-makers.