Myhre speaks on carbon accounting and climate justice in Nori podcast

Sarah Myhre was interviewed in the Carbon Removal Newsroom Podcast with Nori on Carbon Accounting and Climate Justice in July 2022. Sarah, host Radhika and other guest Jane Zelikova discuss a recent commentary peice by Carton, Lund, and Dooley’s looking at assumptions often made in climate pledges and net-zero plans, which highlights three ways government and corporate climate plans gloss over important nuances when planning their path to decarbonization.

Sarah shares:

"One of the things I think that’s happening in the carbon removal spaces is a lot of magical thinking. A lot of unspecific magical thinking that is really emotionally motivated. But we don’t talk about those emotions because they are personal and they are motivated by our individual narratives. A lot of people are experiencing a deterrence around the solutions to climate change because they have aversion to the solutions themselves. They have a narrative that it is going to take things away from them and undermine their quality of life. That solution aversion ends up really strengthening the interest in carbon removal as a magical solution, a technical solution, a technocratic solution. This paper does a good job in unpacking some of the thinking behind that and really getting out in front of exactly what they say in the abstract, which is how carbon removal contributes to mitigation deterrence."

The hosts also discuss a recent article in which David Wallace-Wells examined the confusing and competing narratives about our climate future. This piece warns against looking for a convenient climate story as both the best- and worst-case scenarios imagined in the past now appear unlikely.

The excitement, investment, and research into carbon removal have percolated into international diplomacy and big business. In this episode, Radhika, Jane, and Sarah discuss how carbon dioxide removal fits into the confusing and rapidly evolving global climate conversation.