Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies are projected to be extensively deployed in many ambitious global climate mitigation scenarios. In this presentation I discuss a classification of such scenarios and discuss challenges that are implied but often overlooked. I then introduce the analogy of the atmospheric parking garage to illustrate shortcomings of the current carbon taxation systems, especially within a CDR regime, and offer new perspectives on pricing carbon stocks that would resolve some of the most challenging aspects of international climate policy, including intergeneration equity, permanence, and the polluter pays principle. In the third part, I will further illustrate how different interpretations of utilitarianism lead to different long-term mitigation strategies.

Biography. Fabian Wagner is the Dean for Capacity Development and Academic Training and a Principal Research Scholar in the Energy, Climate, and Environment (ECE) Program at IIASA. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the journal npj Clean Energy (Nature portfolio). Previously Wagner was Visiting Professor for Energy and the Environment at Princeton University, a researcher with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) located at the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) in Hayama, Japan, and a postdoc with the International Energy Analysis Group at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). Wagner received both his PhD (theoretical physics) and two master's degrees (mathematics; history and philosophy of science) from Cambridge University, UK. 

Much of his day-to-day work is not academic but dedicated to support policy makers in Europe and Asia in coming to cooperative agreements on regional and international regulatory targets and measures for clean air.

Selected recent academic publications:

• Liu, S., Guo, Y., Wagner, F. , Liu, H., Cui, R., & Mauzerall, D. (2024). Diversifying heat sources in China’s urban district heating systems will reduce risk of carbon lock-in. Nature Energy 9 1021-1031. 10.1038/s41560-024-01560-4.
• Damania, R. +15 co-authors. Nature’s Frontiers: Achieving Sustainability, Efficiency, and Prosperity with Natural Capital. (The World Bank, 2023).
• Romanello, M., +98 co-authors, 2022. The 2022 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: health at the mercy of fossil fuels. The Lancet. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01540-9
• Budolfson, +15 co-authors. (2021). Climate action with revenue recycling has benefits for poverty, inequality and well-being. Nature Climate Change https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-021-01217-0.
• Rao, N. D., Kiesewetter, G., Min, J., Pachauri, S. & Wagner, F. Household contributions to and impacts from air pollution in India. Nature Sustainability 4, 859–867 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-021-00744-0
• Bednar, J., Obersteiner, M., Baklanov, A. Thomson, M, Wagner, F., Geden, O., Allen M., Hall, J. Operationalizing the net-negative carbon economy. Nature (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03723-9