Biden announces new Carbon Management Challenge on CCUS and CDR for COP28

US President Joe Biden. Image courtesy of Ethan Miller/Getty Images/

The US President Joe Biden convened a virtual meeting of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate Change (MEF) on 20 April in order to galvanize efforts to limit global warming to 1.5C. He proposed four "pillars of action": decarbonising energy (including with CCUS on fossil fuels); ending deforestation; tackling non-CO₂ greenhouse gases particularly methane; and accelerating CCUS and CDR technologies under a "COP28 Carbon Management Challenge". He invited other countries to join this Carbon Management Challenge and to share at COP28 their announcements to accelerate the development and deployment of CCUS and CDR technologies internationally. At the MEF meeting, leaders from Australia, Canada, Egypt, the European Union, Japan, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Norway and Denmark joined in supporting the launch of this challenge.

This MEF meeting was supported with a new report from International Energy Agency on "Credible Pathways to 1.5C", which provides more information on these four pillars of action needed. This was presented by Dr Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency. This highlights that CCUS needs to scale up by 30x by 2030 to achieve the 1.2GT needed to achieve 1.5C.

The President also encouraged countries to strengthen their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) by COP28 to align with achieving 1.5C, and encouraged the multi-lateral development banks to align with this Paris Agreement objective also, including providing new funding to the Green Climate Fund.

IEAGHG very much welcomes this new Carbon Management Challenge, especially following on from the recent G7 announcement on CDR and CCUS (see IEAGHG blog 19 April). IEAGHG will support the US and other countries in promoting and meeting this Carbon Management Challenge, and in proactively disseminating information on CCUS and CDR at COP28 as we do.

For more information see:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/04/20/fact-sheet-president-biden-to-catalyze-global-climate-action-through-the-major-economies-forum-on-energy-and-climate/

User Clip: POTUS on CMC | C-SPAN.org

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/04/21/chairs-summary-of-the-major-economies-forum-on-energy-and-climate-held-by-president-joe-biden-2/

Credible pathways to 1.5 °C - Four pillars for action in the 2020s (windows.net)