Mind the Gap: How States Can Advance Carbon Dioxide Removal Despite Federal Backsliding
Event Logistics:
September 21, 2-3pm (light refreshments will be served)
Venue: Stimson Room, NYC Bar Association, 42 W. 44th St, New York
Event Description:
Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) will be needed, alongside rapid and deep emissions cuts, to achieve the temperature limits set in the Paris Agreement. Various CDR techniques are being explored, and some have already been deployed, but only at small scales. Removals are currently estimated at just 2.2 gigatons per year but will likely need reach somewhere between 4 and 9 gigatons by 2050 if global temperature goals are to be met. This scale up will not be possible without strong government support but, in the U.S., federal support for CDR seems to be waning. Recent cuts to federal funding and other programs risk derailing CDR development at a time when it needs to be speeding up. This event will explore whether and how U.S. states might help to fill the gap left by this federal backtracking. Expert panelists will discuss innovative legal and policy tools states are already using, or might use in the future, to drive the required scale-up of CDR.
Speakers:
Romany M. Webb, Deputy Director, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, Columbia Law School (Moderator)
Wil Burns, Co-Director, Institute for Responsible Carbon Removal, American University
Ashwin Murthy, Fellow, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, Columbia Law School
Isabel Wood, Associate, Climate Aligned Industries, RMI
Liz Whiteman, Executive Director, California Ocean Science Trust