Key requirements to evaluate climate response options
© Polina Grishma, unsplash
How can climate response options be evaluated holistically? A new study published in Environmental Research Letters offers key insights. Authors Felix Gulde, Maximilian Witting, Frederike Neuber, Christian Baatz, and Matthias Garschagen from the STEPSEC consortium within CDRterra critically examine existing frameworks for assessing climate response options, including carbon dioxide removal (CDR).
Their analysis finds that:
- Many frameworks fail to distinguish clearly between the feasibility and desirability of climate actions.
- Evaluative standards and thresholds are often missing or poorly defined.
- Important political aspects like temporal dynamics, trade-offs and synergies are frequently overlooked.
Lead author Felix Gulde states:
“While the review was published in a special issue on CDR, the analysis provides key findings that are relevant for the overarching assessment of climate response options in general.”
The publication offers concrete suggestions to improve assessment frameworks, supporting a future-oriented, political decision-making, taking normative value judgements into account.
© Felix Gulde
Publikation:
Felix Gulde, Maximilian Witting, Frederike Neuber, Christian Baatz and Matthias Garschagen: Frameworks to assess climate change responses—a systematic analysis to enhance frameworks for carbon dioxide removal. Environmental Research Letters 2025. DOI 10.1088/1748-9326/adcad3.
STEPSEC investigates future pathways for land-based carbon dioxide removal in Germany by combining Earth system and land-use modelling with stakeholder engagement.