本文转自《The guardian》发表的题为“Urgent greenhouse gas removal plan could see UK hit 'net zero' target – report”的报道。

作者：Fiona Harvey

日期：2018.09.12

原文链接：https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/sep/12/urgent-greenhouse-gas-removal-plan-could-see-uk-hit-net-zero-target-report

Tree-planting, restoring wetlands and use of chemicals to remove CO2 from air needed, as well as cutting new emissions, say scientists.

科学家表示，植树，恢复湿地和使用化学品从空气中去除二氧化碳，以及减少新的排放。

Tree planting in the National Forest, Burton-on-Trent. Trees act as a carbon sink so could play a major role in bringing down net emissions. Photograph: Bill Allsopp/Alamy

在特伦特伯顿国家森林植树。 树木充当碳汇，因此可以在降低净排放量方面发挥重要作用。 照片：Bill Allsopp / Alamy

Tree-planting, restoring wetlands and using chemicals to take carbon dioxide from the air will all be needed to reduce the UK’s greenhouse gases in line with government plans, scientists have said.

科学家们表示，根据政府的计划，将需要植树，恢复湿地和使用化学品从空气中吸收二氧化碳来减少英国的温室气体排放。

If these measures are taken urgently, they could make enough of a contribution to make the UK “net zero” in terms of carbon emissions by 2050. However, a major programme to bring them into effect would be needed as a matter of urgency.

如果紧急采取这些措施，他们可以做出足够的贡献，使英国在2050年的碳排放量方面“净零”。但是，作为紧急事项，需要制定一项实施这些措施的重大计划。

“We will need to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere as well as work on ways to stop emitting so much in the first place,” said Nilay Shah, head of chemical engineering at Imperial College London, and a member of the working group on the report. “The very first thing we need to do is go to a very low number on emissions by 2050. If we work very hard on decarbonising energy and emissions from building and transport and industry, we can bring down emissions to 130m tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e) by 2050 compared with 450 MtCO2e today.”

伦敦帝国理工学院化学工程系主任，工作组成员Nilay Shah说：“我们需要从大气中清除温室气体，并首先采取措施阻止排放。”  “我们需要做的第一件事就是到2050年排放的数量非常少。如果我们非常努力地将建筑、运输和工业的能源和排放脱碳，我们可以到2015年将排放量减少到130MtCO2e(二氧化碳当量) ，与今天的450 MtCO2e相比。“

That remaining 130m tonnes “is very difficult to get rid of”, said Shah, partly as it comes from activities such as agriculture and aviation, which are hard to decarbonise. This left a gap which could only be filled by removing greenhouse gases from the air.

Shah说，剩下的1.3亿吨“非常难以清除”，部分原因在于农业和航空等难以脱碳的活动。 这留下了一个只能通过从空气中去除温室气体来填补的空隙。

In a joint report on greenhouse gas removal, the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering found that increasing the amount of forested land in the UK to 5% of land area could play a major role as trees act as a carbon sink. At the same time, farmers could be encouraged through incentives or subsidies to use their land to store carbon through better farming methods. Restoring natural features such as wetlands and marshes would also store more carbon.

在一份关于温室气体减排的联合报告中，英国皇家学会和皇家工程学院发现，将英国森林面积增加到5％的土地面积可能会起到重要作用，因为树木可以作为碳汇。 与此同时，可以通过激励措施或补贴鼓励农民利用土地通过更好的耕作方法储存碳。 恢复湿地和沼泽等自然特征也会储存更多的碳。

Construction companies should also be given incentives to use wood, which is a natural store of carbon, and cement can be manufactured with waste carbon dioxide to offset the emissions from its production.

建筑公司也应该被激励使用木材，这是一种天然的碳储存，水泥可以用废二氧化碳制造，以抵消其生产的排放。

However, while these measures together would account for about a quarter of the carbon reductions needed, technology to remove carbon from the air would also be required, the scientists said.

然而，科学家表示，虽然这些措施共同占所需碳减排量的四分之一，但也需要从空气中去除碳的技术。

Some of this could be done by capturing carbon emissions at source, such as at power plants. Using bioenergy, such as wood, plants and waste, while capturing the resulting carbon dioxide is technically possible and should be pursued, the scientists urged. But they said other methods, such as direct air capture, would also be needed.

其中一些可以通过从源头捕获碳排放来完成，例如在发电厂。 科学家们敦促，使用生物能源，如木材，植物和废物，同时捕获所产生的二氧化碳在技术上是可行的，应该继续进行。 但他们表示还需要其他方法，例如直接空中捕获。

Direct air capture usually involves chemical processes called “scrubbing”, which means using compounds that react with carbon dioxide in the air to form new chemicals that can be safely disposed of, locking in the carbon. While scrubbing is commonly used to clean up other emissions, such as coal-plant emissions containing sulphur, using it to remove carbon from the air is difficult and can be costly.

直接空气捕获通常涉及称为“洗涤”的化学过程，这意味着使用与空气中的二氧化碳反应的化合物来形成可以安全处理的新化学物质，锁住碳。 虽然洗涤通常用于清除其他排放物，例如含有硫的煤电厂排放物，但是使用它来从空气中除去碳是困难的并且可能是昂贵的。

The report found that economically encouraging the use of direct air capture would require a price to be put on carbon dioxide, probably of as much as $100 a tonne.

该报告发现，在经济上鼓励使用直接空气捕获需要对二氧化碳施加价格，可能高达每吨100美元。

Richard Black, director of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, called the report “crucially important” for the UK’s low-carbon future. “It shows the UK can take its carbon emissions down to net zero by around mid-century and can do so affordably,” he said. “If anything, it has over-estimated the amount of negative emissions the UK will need, and yet still concludes that we can deliver.”

能源与气候情报部门主任理Richard Black称该报告对英国的低碳未来“至关重要”。 “这表明英国可以在本世纪中叶左右将其碳排放量降至净零，并且可以负担得起，”他说。 “如果有什么不同的话，那就是它高估了英国需要的负排放量，但仍然得出结论，我们可以提供。”

He pointed ahead to a major report coming from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change next month, which is expected to find that the world must achieve net zero emissions by 2050 to meet the Paris agreement targets. After that report, the UK’s statutory government advisors, the Committee on Climate Change, will issue formal advice on how the UK can meet such a target.

他指出了下个月政府间气候变化专门委员会发布的一份重要报告，该报告预计到2050年世界必须实现净零排放，以实现巴黎协议的目标。在该报告之后，英国的法定政府顾问气候变化委员会将就英国如何实现这一目标发布正式建议。

Black said: “This report, showing it is possible [to achieve net zero emissions], could not have come at a more opportune time.”

布莱克说：“这份报告显示，有可能[实现净零排放]，不可能在更合适的时机出现。”

Direct air capture of carbon dioxide is different from the forms of carbon capture and storage (CCS) attached to power plants, which have been targeted in the past. For most of the past decade, the UK was pursuing carbon capture and storage technologies focused on taking carbon emissions from fossil fuel power plants and storing them under the North Sea, with several companies working on the technology. However, the previous government pulled the plug on those plans and the UK no longer has any pilot projects for CCS from power plants, though other countries have moved ahead with pioneering projects.

二氧化碳的直接空气捕获不同于附着在发电厂的碳捕获和储存（CCS）的形式，这是过去的目标。在过去十年的大部分时间里，英国正在寻求碳捕集与封存技术，重点是从化石燃料发电厂吸收碳排放并将其储存在北海之下，有几家公司致力于该技术。然而，之前的政府取消了对这些计划的限制，英国不再有任何来自发电厂的CCS试点项目，尽管其他国家已经开展了先锋项目。

Shah said CCS for power plants would also be needed, in addition to direct air capture, if the UK is to continue to use fossil fuels. Such plants could all share the same transport and storage infrastructure, bringing down costs.

Shah表示，如果英国要继续使用化石燃料，除了直接空气捕获外，还需要用于发电厂的CCS。 这些工厂可以共享相同的运输和存储基础设施，从而降低成本。