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.
Kate Dooley is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Melbourne, researching the environmental integrity of terrestrial carbon accounting, and the equity implications of land-based climate mitigation, including the use of 'negative emissions'. Previously Kate has worked in Europe and Africa on forest governance reforms and illegal logging, and has followed negotiations on forests in the UN climate talks since 2009.