Are there scalable and sustainable ways of removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere?
David Addison and Guy Lomax of Virgin Airlines will deliver this seminar entitled
Abstract
Despite more than 20 years of international efforts, global anthropogenic Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions continue to increase, keeping the world on a sustained path towards dangerous climate change and ocean acidification. Within the last few years, the persisting failure to cut emissions at the required rate, and reflections on how the Earth system has historically negated fluctuations in GHG concentrations has led to increased interest in Greenhouse Gas Removal (GGR), methods that seek to remove GHGs from the air by creating or enhancing GHG ‘sinks’.
David Addison and Guy Lomax will aim to use their experiences with the Virgin Earth Challenge (a $25m innovation prize for scalable, sustainable ways of removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere) to provide an up-to-date picture of the latest knowledge and debate on a range of GGR systems, as well as their context, questions, and potential.
Biography
David Addison works in the Investment Team at Virgin. He manages the Virgin Earth Challenge, Sir Richard Branson’s $25m science and innovation prize for ways of removing greenhouse gases from the air. In addition to the Earth Challenge, he engages with a range of projects and special situations; from assessing earlier stage social, environmental and technological opportunities, to some bigger group-level people and planet initiatives.
His undergraduate studies in Physical Geography (BSc, with first class honours) focused on earth system science, especially environmental and climatic change, alongside environmental economics, biodiversity, ecology and global development. David was awarded his school’s the prize for best BSc undergraduate thesis. He also holds an MSc in Environmental Technology, specialising in Energy Policy, from Imperial College London.
Guy Lomax first developed his interest in climate change and earth systems science through his undergraduate studies in Natural Sciences at Cambridge, specialising in Earth Sciences. After graduating, he joined Imperial College London’s MSc course in Sustainable Energy Futures, which emphasised a cross-disciplinary approach to the challenges of climate change and energy. Guy’s MSc thesis, for which he received a mark of distinction, looked at the wider challenges of combining Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage. He is currently working with the Virgin Group on the Virgin Earth Challenge, applying this whole-system approach to the emerging field of Greenhouse Gas Removal.
