There is no cheating the atmosphere

Carbon Market Watch criticises a proposal by fifteen Members of the European Parliament to incentivise CCS and CCU within the EU carbon market. The organisation distinguishes between carbon removals, which physically remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, and CCS/CCU, which typically only capture emissions from industrial sources. It warns that promoting CCS/CCU could lead to greenwashing, stranded assets, and delayed emissions, particularly in the power sector. The document specifically highlights the risks of BECCS and waste-to-energy CCS, citing deforestation linked to the Drax power plant. It concludes that the EU carbon market must focus on reducing emissions at the source and that public funding should only support mature, transparently assessed carbon removal technologies.

• Carbon capture and storage (CCS) and carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) are distinct from carbon removals; while removals take greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere, CCS and CCU generally only remove gases from industrial installations and may not eliminate all emissions.
• Integrating CCS and CCU into the EU carbon market risks diverting focus from reducing emissions at the source and could result in public funds supporting greenwashing and the creation of stranded assets, especially in the power sector.
• CCU technologies are deemed unsuitable for the EU carbon market because they often only delay emissions rather than eliminate them, and some processes may actually increase emissions due to high energy requirements.
• Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is criticised as not being environmentally safe or socially beneficial, with the Drax power plant in Europe cited as an example of causing deforestation in the US and increasing emissions.
• The author supports the use of the EU carbon market's Innovation Fund for mature carbon removal technologies and the development of the European Commission's Carbon Removal Certification Mechanism, provided public money does not fund projects that prolong fossil fuel use.

APA

Stoefs, W. (2021). There is no cheating the atmosphere. Carbon Market Watch. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2021/09/20/there-is-no-cheating-the-atmosphere/

Chicago

Stoefs, Wijnand. There is no cheating the atmosphere. Carbon Market Watch, 2021. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2021/09/20/there-is-no-cheating-the-atmosphere/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Stoefs |first1=Wijnand |title=There is no cheating the atmosphere |publisher=Carbon Market Watch |date=20 September 2021 |url=https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2021/09/20/there-is-no-cheating-the-atmosphere/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{stoefs2021there, author = {Stoefs, Wijnand}, title = {{There is no cheating the atmosphere}}, publisher = {Carbon Market Watch}, year = {2021}, month = sep, url = {https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2021/09/20/there-is-no-cheating-the-atmosphere/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }