ITS4.26/CL0.20 | Inclusive Climate Transition Pathways: Negative Emission Technologies, Social Impacts, and Governance
Inclusive Climate Transition Pathways: Negative Emission Technologies, Social Impacts, and Governance
Convener: Hyun Jin Choi | Co-conveners: Kira Rehfeld, Eungul Lee, Matthias May

Achieving carbon neutrality, and ultimately net carbon removal, is a central pillar of climate mitigation, but it increasingly entails complex scientific, technological, and societal challenges. Pathways consistent with limiting global warming to 1.5°C or 2°C are expected to rely heavily on the deployment of negative emission strategies, including afforestation and reforestation, bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), enhanced rock weathering, and direct air carbon capture and storage. While these approaches offer substantial mitigation potential, they are constrained by biogeophysical limits, technological feasibility, governance challenges, and uneven social impacts across regions and communities. At the same time, the transition toward carbon neutrality is reshaping industrial structures, land use, and everyday life, with significant implications for the distribution of costs and benefits. These transformations can intensify social conflicts, disproportionately affect vulnerable groups, and shape public perceptions and acceptance of climate policies and technologies. Understanding the interactions between technological deployment, societal responses, and governance is therefore essential for assessing the feasibility and inclusiveness of carbon neutrality pathways. This session examines carbon neutrality pathways from inter- and trans-disciplinary perspectives, focusing on the potentials and limits of negative emission technologies and their societal implications, including issues of social conflict, governance, and inclusion.

Solicited authors:
Dong-Young Kim
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