In 2024, the authors of the 2009 “net zero papers” published an article in Nature entitled “Geological Net Zero and the need for disaggregated accounting for carbon sinks”. The authors argued that halting global warming must include geological net zero, which means that for every tonne of CO2 emitted from fossil sources, one tonne is permanently stored in geological formations. They also argued that the biosphere cannot be relied on to indefinitely absorb emissions because of the increasing stresses and demands on it.
This piece is a short summary of the 2024 Nature article written by four of the article authors: Myles Allen, Stuart Jenkins (University of Oxford), Glen Peters (CICERO Center for International Climate Research) and Pierre Friedlingstein (Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy, University of Exeter).
The 2009 “net zero papers” were Solomon et al, Meinshausen et al, Allen et al, Matthews et al, Zickfeld et al, and Gregory et al.
