Study suggests 'controversial' technologies needed to control climate change

A new study has revealed that the technologies that are discussed controversially today may be needed to keep the future risks and costs of climate change in check.

According to the study, the key to achieving current climate policy objectives such as limiting the rise of the global mean temperature to below 2 degrees Celsius, lies in combining the production of energy from fossil fuels and biomass with capturing and storing the CO2 they emit.

Lead author Elmar Kriegler from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research said that versatile technologies seem to be most important to keep costs in check, and both, bioenergy and CCS, can help reduce emissions from non-electric energy use that would be hard to decarbonize otherwise.

The study was published in a special issue of the journal Climatic Change.