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Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Sequestration (BECCS): The Distracting Injustice of an Infeasible and Unlikely Technofix

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Abstract

In their constant attempt to avoid responsibility, polluters promote technological innovation as the ‘true’ solution to global warming. This article, through the case of BECCS, illustrates all that is faulty with such reasoning, and how indulging such diversion from addressing the environmental crisis with science-backed solutions violates human rights and the SDGs, and evidently, deepens the crisis and postpones the responsibility of making inconvenient changes to future generations.

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Notes

  1. https://www.cslforum.org/cslf/sites/default/files/documents/Publications/BECCS_Task_Force_Report_2018-04-04.pdf.

  2. https://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/2015/beccs-report/.

  3. Corn ethanol refineries use fermentation, which releases some carbon in a relatively pure and easily captured form. However, doing so is by no means a ‘carbon negative’ process since only a small portion of carbon is captured, and refineries generally run on fossil fuels, emitting far more carbon than what is captured.

  4. https://globalnews.ca/news/4100577/carbon-capture-operation-and-maintenance-costs-grow-by-nearly-15m-in-four-years/.

  5. https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/08/08/southern-company-fraud-allegations-kemper-clean-coal-project.

  6. https://thinkprogress.org/clean-coal-isnt-real-eda3e2841060/.

  7. Reviewed in: Last ditch climate option or wishful thinking? Biofuelwatch report, 2015.

  8. https://www.fhi.no/en/publ/2011/co2-capture-health-effects-of-amine/.

  9. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19900885.

  10. https://www.nature.com/articles/srep15991.

  11. https://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/biomass-resources/resources-on-biomass/.

  12. https://www.dropbox.com/s/l8sx5bl0h02x395/UPDATE%20800%20signatures_Scientist%20Letter%20on%20EU%20Forest%20Biomass.pdf?dl=0.

  13. https://www.desmog.co.uk/2019/07/17/comment-policymakers-shouldn-t-trust-drax-s-bizarre-tree-burning-climate-solution.

  14. https://www.dogwoodalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/NRDC_2014-2017Booklet_DigitalVersion-resize.pdf.

  15. https://www.drax.com/press_release/europes-first-bioenergy-carbon-capture-storage-pilot-now-underway/.

  16. https://www.drax.com/press_release/drax-help-keep-fizz-drinks-sector/.

  17. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-012-0682-3.

  18. https://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/2012/biomass_myth_report/.

  19. http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/01/02/1213163110.

  20. https://www.grain.org/article/entries/4653-land-grabbing-for-biofuels-must-stop.

  21. http://biofuelwatch.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/eucalyptus-plantations-for-energy-online.pdf.

  22. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309383829_Biofuels_and_the_hazards_of_land_grabbing_Tenure_insecurity_and_indigenous_farmers%27_investment_decisions_in_Ghana.

  23. http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=13178&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html.

  24. http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/2015/beccs-report/.

  25. https://energypost.eu/17433-2/.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biofuelwatch, Hinesburg, VT, USA

    Rachel Smolker

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  1. Rachel Smolker
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Correspondence to Rachel Smolker.

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Smolker, R. Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Sequestration (BECCS): The Distracting Injustice of an Infeasible and Unlikely Technofix. Development 62, 13–18 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41301-019-00213-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41301-019-00213-4

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