‘Harder and riskier': Carbon removal needed if Paris goals don't rise

Greenhouse gas emission cuts must be at least 20 per cent deeper than pledged under the Paris climate accord or the world will have to begin the costly direct removal of atmospheric carbon to avoid dangerous climate change, a new study argues.

Emissions impossible? Delays in cutting emissions make it
 more likely that carbon will have to be directly captured
if dangerous climate change is to be avoided.

The Germany-based researchers examined the action needed if nations failed to deliver greater carbon curbs by 2030 but still kept global warming to under 2 degrees, compared with pre-industrial levels.

"Each tonne of CO2 we don't emit, we don't have to remove from the atmosphere afterwards in an expensive and strenuous way," said Jessica Strefler from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and the lead author of the paper published on Thursday in Environmental Research Letters.

Read Peter Hannam’s story from The Age - “‘Harder and riskier': Carbon removal needed if Paris goals don't rise.”