Dr. Ulrike Pfreundt

Carbon Storage’s Prudent Limit: The End Of Infinite Assumptions Nature just published "A prudent planetary limit for geologic carbon storage". It’s an important correction to decades of CCS optimism. CleanTechnica article: https://lnkd.in/gwNfyzJC For years, storage was treated as if it were limitless, with estimates in the tens of thousands of gigatons. That assumption allowed policy models to treat CCS as both a lifeline for fossil fuels and a safety valve for overshoot. The new work applies risk filters — seismic zones, depth limits, shallow waters, urban buffers, protected areas, and governance constraints — and cuts the safe global capacity to about 1,460 gigatons. That’s roughly 90 percent lower than industry and model assumptions. The implications are stark. If storage is used to offset ongoing fossil fuel use, there isn’t enough left to handle removals later in the century. At best, the prudent limit could deliver 0.7 °C of cooling if reserved entirely for durable removals. Many 2 °C and even 1.5 °C scenarios already exceed this budget. That means CCS cannot serve as both fossil lifeline and overshoot fix. Its role should be tightly focused: hard-to-abate industrial sectors, relatively pure biogenic CO₂, and only limited amounts of direct air capture. Using storage to prolong coal and gas makes no sense when every ton stored reduces the future cooling potential. Storage is scarce, risky, unevenly distributed, and expensive. Policymakers should treat it as a finite global commons, not a backstop. The real path to climate stabilization remains what it always was: rapid emissions reductions and electrification, with CCS reserved for the narrow niches where it truly adds value.

277

38 Kommentare

New paper out in Science Advances: Geographic range shapes influence species richness in global hotspots 🏔️🦜 In our new study from Villum Center for Global Mountain Biodiversity, we manage to add another piece to the puzzle of what determines #biodiversity richness on Earth, and – more specifically – why tropical mountains are considered absolute biodiversity hotspots, including an amazing variety of bird species. It is well-established that biodiversity hotspots are associated with the concentration of small-ranged species, especially within tropical mountain regions. However, it’s only one of several fundamental factors of species ranges that determine species richness within a given area – in other words there’s more to the story. By analyzing large high-resolution datasets of the geographical and elevational distribution of all +8,000 mainland bird species, we find that the shapes of their geographic ranges - how “stretched out” or patchy their habitats are - play a big role in creating the foundation for the most extreme hotspots of species richness. In mountainous regions, like the Andes, with few seasonal changes and a varied terrain stretching for thousands of kilometres, bird habitats tend to be more irregular and elongated. These special shapes help increase the number of species found in the specific region. The new insights not only shed light on Humboldt’s classic enigma of why mountains are so species-rich, but it also changes the perspective on the build-up of global diversity hotspots upon which so many global funding schemes for biodiversity rely. The study is first-authored by Jesper Sonne with me as senior author and co-authored by our colleagues Michael Borregaard and Robert K Colwell. As always, the beautiful illustrations are the work of Jon Fjeldså. -- Sonne J, Borregaard MK, Colwell RK, Rahbek C. Geographic range shapes influence species richness in global hotspots. Sci. Adv. 11, eaea0138 (2025). https://lnkd.in/diaBkcd4

74

1 Kommentar

🌳 Can we monitor forest regrowth without LiDAR? We evaluated our CTrees deep learning model that predicts canopy height from Planet NICFI RGB-NIR imagery across young Pinus and Eucalyptus plantations in Brazil 🌱, using natural forests and pastures as controls. 📈 The model closely tracked Pinus growth at the parcel scale, with estimates generally within 1 SD of UAV-derived heights. 🌿 For Eucalyptus, growth was detected, but canopy height was underestimated (by over 10 m in some cases) until later in the cycle. ➡️ These are first results, and they’re encouraging for the monitoring of natural forest regeneration, offering new opportunities to assess ecosystem recovery at scale. Read the full paper here 👉 https://lnkd.in/g7fWvSU4 Let’s connect if you’re working on forest modeling, regrowth, or remote sensing!👇#RemoteSensing #Forestry #AI4Earth #PlanetNICFI #Brazil #DeepLearning

92

6 Kommentare