Going beyond emissions reduction – Climate Repair

Sun 12 February 2023

Department of Chemistry

A Lecture by Dr Shaun Fitzgerald FREng OBE, Director of Research, Centre for Climate Repair, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge.

The second talk in a series of lectures organised by the Cambridge Philosophical Society in the Lent Term 2024.

Abstract: The lecture will firstly summarise exactly where we are with climate change and crucially what the scientists are now considering in terms of the future. A future based purely on emissions reductions cannot keep the world below 1.5C.

We discuss some of the exciting ideas for greenhouse gas removal, and importantly going beyond terrestrial-based carbon dioxide removal. We will explore some of the approaches for marine carbon dioxide removal as well as the development of materials to accelerate the rate of oxidation of methane.

We will then spend time discussing what additional options we might have beyond emissions reduction and greenhouse gas removal; whilst these are necessary, even the most optimistic and ambitious scenarios considered by the IPCC indicate that they are not sufficient to keep temperatures below 1.5C. We will therefore review engineering concepts to limit temperature rise or interventions to protect glaciers and sea-ice, and ostensibly buy us time to stave off the worst effects of climate change whilst we get greenhouse gas levels down.

We will explore the different technologies which are being researched at the University of Cambridge in collaboration with multiple partner universities around the world, as well as the issues of public attitudes, governance and ethics associated with such research and potential deployment.

Cost: free