Analysis of the Emergent Climate Change Mitigation Technologies

• Main Authors: Deborah Panepinto, Vincenzo A. Riggio, Mariachiara Zanetti
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-06-01
• Series: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
• Subjects: climate change mitigation; environmental impact assessment; negative emissions technologies; microalgae
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/13/6767

A climate change mitigation refers to efforts to reduce or prevent emission of greenhouse gases. Mitigation can mean using new technologies and renewable energies, making older equipment more energy efficient, or changing management practices or consumer behavior. The mitigation technologies are able to reduce or absorb the greenhouse gases (GHG) and, in particular, the CO₂ present in the atmosphere. The CO₂ is a persistent atmospheric gas. It seems increasingly likely that concentrations of CO₂ and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will overshoot the 450 ppm CO₂ target, widely seen as the upper limit of concentrations consistent with limiting the increase in global mean temperature from pre-industrial levels to around 2 °C. In order to stay well below to the 2 °C temperature thus compared to the pre-industrial level as required to the Paris Agreement it is necessary that in the future we will obtain a low (or better zero) emissions and it is also necessary that we will absorb a quantity of CO₂ from the atmosphere, by 2070, equal to 10 Gt/y. In order to obtain this last point, so in order to absorb an amount of CO₂ equal to about 10 Gt/y, it is necessary the implementation of the negative emission technologies. The negative emission technologies are technologies able to absorb the CO₂ from the atmosphere. The aim of this work is to perform a detailed overview of the main mitigation technologies possibilities currently developed and, in particular, an analysis of an emergent negative emission technology: the microalgae massive cultivation for CO₂ biofixation.