Burning trees will not save us from the climate crisis – Richard Dixon. Around the world many governments are pinning their climate hopes on BECCS – Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage.A new report from our Friends of the Earth international network finds the idea to be a risky, costly and a dangerous distraction from the need to make rapid and deep cuts to emissions if we are to avoid catastrophic climate change. BECCS involves growing crops which take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere then burning them and using carbon capture and storage (CCS) to remove the climate-wrecking carbon from the resulting exhaust gases. The result is a Negative Emissions Technology, allowing us to continue burning fossil fuels because the carbon is supposedly being taken back out of the atmosphere. In some parts of the world the crops might be coppiced willow or elephant grass. In Scotland it would be fast-growing trees like Sitka spruce.
Scotsman 26th Jan 2021 read more »