Three Reports, One Story: Geoengineering is Dangerous… and Unnecessary (Webinar)



Join CIEL, Heinrich Böll, Oil Change International, and DiCaprio Foundation/OneEarth for short presentations and a Q&A on three seminal reports on geoengineering: In the first two months of 2019, the Center for International Environmental Law/Heinrich Böll Foundation, Oil Change International, and the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation/OneEarth released three separate reports that tell interlinked parts of a single story: not only is it possible to stay within 1.5 degrees of global temperature rise without carbon capture storage, direct air capture, and geoengineering, but that is the only responsible way to do so.

In its Sky’s Limit reports, its 45Q analysis, and most recently in Drilling towards Disaster, OCI makes clear that further expansion of oil and gas production will quickly push the world beyond the 1.5C limit. This is true even if the production is done in the name of CO2-EOR.

In Fuel to the Fire, CIEL extends this analysis by looking not only at CCS, but also at how DACS, BECCS, and other forms of carbon dioxide removal will lock in fossil fuel infrastructure and further entrench the fossil economy, and how the dangerous prospect of solar geoengineering is being used to justify lower ambition pathways away from fossil fuels.

Finally, in Achieving the Paris Climate Agreement, LDF/OneEarth present a compelling case and a comprehensive pathway for keeping the world below 2C or 1.5C without reliance on CCS or geoengineering. The One Earth Climate Model debunks the myth that CCUS, CDR, and other forms of geoengineering are necessary. The presenters will answer questions following presentations about each of these reports.

About the presenters:

Alex Doukas, Lead Analyst of the Stop Funding Fossils Program, Oil Change International. Alex Doukas is the Lead Analyst in Oil Change International’s Stop Funding Fossils Program. His work focuses on ending international subsidies and public finance for fossil fuels, and shifting public resources toward building a clean energy future, including access to clean energy for all. He is the co-author of Expanding Subsidies for CO2-Enhanced Oil Recovery: A Net Loss for Communities, Taxpayers, and the Climate. Alex has worked on climate and energy issues for over a decade. Previously, he worked with the World Resources Institute, where he focused on sustainable finance. Alex has also worked with the Pembina Institute in Canada on energy and climate policy.

Carroll Muffett, President & CEO Center for International Environmental Law. Carroll has been active in international and national climate advocacy, including campaigns against coal, oil, and gas at the national and international level, for more than a decade, and is a leader in the emerging field of international legal responses to climate change. Carroll is co-author of Fuel to the Fire: How Geoengineering Threatens to Entrench Fossil Fuel Interests and Accelerate the Climate Crisis. Before joining CIEL, Carroll served as Executive Director of the Climate Law & Policy Project and Deputy Campaigns Director at Greenpeace USA, where he was instrumental in the organization’s campaigns on global warming and other issues.

Dr. Sven Teske, Research Director at Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology, Sydney. Sven has 20 years’ experience in technical analysis of renewable energy systems and market integration concept. Sven lead the development of the One Earth Climate Model, oneof the most detailed climate and energy studies ever produced. It offers a unique and interactive look at what the renewables revolution could look like on the path to meeting the most ambitious, yet essential, goals of the Paris Climate Agreement – limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Lili Fuhr, Head of International Environmental Policy Division of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Berlin. Lili leads the foundation’s work on international climate and resource politics and has been working on oil and gas issues for 12 years. She is a board member of ETC Group and a founding board member of the Climate Justice Fund. The Heinrich Böll Foundation is one of the few civil society organisations that has been actively campaigning against geoengineering for many years.

Resources related to the webinar can be found here.