Taking CO2 "out of the sky" will naturally be seen as a way of offsetting fossil-fuel consumption. It would reduce the incentives to stop digging-up fossil fuels.
This doesn't just apply to mining/drilling companies; it applies to all of us. We all need energy - individuals, our employers, our suppliers. None of us want to pay a lot of money for that energy; even eco-nutters will blench at the prospect of higher bills or taxes.
So I'm against all excuses for mining and burning fossils. I'm against offsetting and (feeble attempts at) CC&S. And I'm against attempts to reduce emissions by means of taxes and regulation - that's all very well, but many places in the world have quite weak law enforcement, and many large countries seem to be perfectly OK with building new coal-fired power stations.
Instead, we need to just stop digging up and burning fossils. EVs, solar and wind-power, enery storage systems, CHP systems and so on can't (easily) be used as excuses for continued fossil energy generation.
Frankly, I despair. The biggest producers of emissions is rich people. Rich people also have the greatest lobbying clout and the most influence on governments. Their pensions are invested in oil and gas companies. Even if an individual expresses support for climate-change mitigation, the manager of his pension fund may well have other views.
So I'm pretty certain that my grand-daughters are going to be faced with worse problems than we face today. The sooner we act, the easier and cheaper it will be; but evidently we are not willing to act, until we are face-to-face with death and apocalypse. That will be my legacy to my grand-daughters, I fear.
This doesn't just apply to mining/drilling companies; it applies to all of us. We all need energy - individuals, our employers, our suppliers. None of us want to pay a lot of money for that energy; even eco-nutters will blench at the prospect of higher bills or taxes.
So I'm against all excuses for mining and burning fossils. I'm against offsetting and (feeble attempts at) CC&S. And I'm against attempts to reduce emissions by means of taxes and regulation - that's all very well, but many places in the world have quite weak law enforcement, and many large countries seem to be perfectly OK with building new coal-fired power stations.
Instead, we need to just stop digging up and burning fossils. EVs, solar and wind-power, enery storage systems, CHP systems and so on can't (easily) be used as excuses for continued fossil energy generation.
Frankly, I despair. The biggest producers of emissions is rich people. Rich people also have the greatest lobbying clout and the most influence on governments. Their pensions are invested in oil and gas companies. Even if an individual expresses support for climate-change mitigation, the manager of his pension fund may well have other views.
So I'm pretty certain that my grand-daughters are going to be faced with worse problems than we face today. The sooner we act, the easier and cheaper it will be; but evidently we are not willing to act, until we are face-to-face with death and apocalypse. That will be my legacy to my grand-daughters, I fear.