The CTBO is a supply-side mitigation policy that would require fossil fuel extractors and importers to dispose safely and permanently of the CO2 the fuel generates, starting with a low fraction and rising to 100 per cent by the year of net-zero CO2. This could provide a path to net-zero emissions by targeting a single industry, if enforced consistently and to include emissions generated by products sold.
“Despite the perceived high cost of carbon dioxide capture and storage, we show that the cost to the world economy of a CBTO, even if entirely passed on to fossil fuel consumers, is no higher than the cost of mitigation in conventional scenarios meeting similar goals driven by a global carbon price,” said Stuart Jenkins, Oxford graduate student and lead author of the Joule study.
The researchers used an integrated assessment model emulator to compare the CTBO to conventional demand-side mitigation policy, and found a globally enforced CTBO to be comparable...