‘Physicist behind net zero’ calls for mandatory CCS

One of the world’s leading climate physicists has again called for new regulation forcing the fossil fuel industry to carry out large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS).

In an exclusive interview with Transform, Professor Myles Allen, CBE – described by the BBC as the ‘physicist behind net zero’ – says it’s now “obvious” that humans will generate more carbon dioxide by burning fossil fuels than they can afford to dump in the atmosphere.

To address this, he believes that “we need to stop fossil fuels causing global warming before the world stops using them”, and calls for a 'Carbon Takeback Obligation', which would force oil and gas companies to clean up after themselves.

“We have a choice: either we reduce global per capita energy consumption by around 50% by 2030, which we show no sign of doing, or we need large-scale CCS,” he explains.

“You could impose this as a simple licensing requirement: anyone who wants to sell fossil fuels in a jurisdiction has to get rid of CO2.

“It’s interesting how many people seem to have an extraordinarily vested interest in making this idea go away, and I don’t really understand it.”

Allen addresses various concerns with his controversial proposal in the full interview, which will be published this Friday in the next issue of IEMA’s Transform magazine (iema.net/transform).