I have been notified that my paper submitted to NEEN26, the NEEN & ISEE Conference on Environmental Ethics which is to be held at Umeå University, Sweden, October 14-16th, titled "The ethical case against Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)", has been rejected by the organisers.
This is the second or third time I have had a paper on this theme rejected. For some reason, the ethics of CCS seems to be anathema.
See also:
I have just composed and submitted the abstract below to NEEN26, the NEEN & ISEE Conference on Environmental Ethics which is to be held at Umeå University, Sweden, October 14-16th. The conference is organised by Nordic Environmental Ethics Network (NEEN) in collaboration with International Society for Environmental Ethics (European section) .
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The ethical case against Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)
CCS has become increasingly central as a proposed mitigation measure. The Net Zero goal presupposes Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR), which may involve the use of so-called negative emission technologies (NETs), which in turn in some cases involve Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). The Net Zero goal has arguably been misappropriated by fossil fuel interests to promote an agenda that seeks to avoid rapidly phasing out fossil fuels. It is commonly claimed that CCS is a necessity. But CCS as practiced to date has actually been found to be net CO2 additive. While emission reductions from CCS are often uncertain, research confirms that CCS mitigation measures have resulted in mitigation deterrence and climate delay. Regrettably, CCS has not triggered much debate in climate ethics, where anthropocentric perspectives – somewhat surprisingly – predominate. In ethical discussions about CCS, interspecies justice is particularly relevant in two ways: Firstly, in so far as CCS policies contribute to allowing continued greenhouse gas emissions and an overshoot in emissions, this will contribute to exacerbate the impact of climate change, including for non-humans. Secondly, in so far as non-humans are harmfully affected by the transportation of CO2 and long-term dedicated geological storage of CO2 in subsurface environments, this is a direct consequence of CCS policies. Lastly, while future generations is a common concern in environmental ethics, this perspective have not received much attention in the context of CCS. With its required time horizon of at least 10,000 years for underground CO2 storages, CCS is a perfect example of intergenerational externalization of costs in a climate change context. This arguably makes CCS unacceptable from the perspective of intergenerational justice and fairness. In this context, the lack of consensus among researchers on what CO2 leakage rates are acceptable is especially concerning.
Today, during the first day of Wonderful World – den nordiske festivalen for filosofi og vitenskap, held for the fourth year in Stavanger, Norway, I chaired the event «Når butikken trumfer etikken», with Mathea Slåttholm Sagdahl (University of Oslo), Peder Skjelbred (University of Oslo) og Espen Gamlund (University of Bergen) in the panel on stage. Some 113 people attended.
I have agreed to take part in two events during this year´s Wonderful World – den nordiske festivalen for filosofi og vitenskap, which is to take place in Stavanger May 27-30th.
Wednesday May 27th: Chairing the event "Når butikken trumfer etikken" at Scene 2, 17:00–18:00. Features Mathea Slåttholm Sagdahl, Espen Gamlund and Peder Skjelbred.
Thursday May 27th: Taking part in the event «Returning to animal – the true human condition» at Scene 2, 15.30-16.30, featuring Melanie Challenger (I am not mentioned online yet).
About a week ago, philosopher Espen Gamlund and the University of Bergen launched the video series "Etiske dilemmaer" (Ethical dilemmas) on Viten-TV, a Norwegian online platform for academic video content. The first episode, "Dyr" (Animals), features interviews with me, Stefan Riedener and Aksel Braanen Sterri, while Gamlund acts as presenter and interviewer.
Today I´ve had half an article writing day, with work done related to my book review of Interpreting, Communication and Animal Welfare for Biosemiotics. Also, I took note that four Store Norske Leksikon encyclopedia entries I have previously suggested edits to have now been updated - specifically, this concerns the entries "Albert Schweitzer", "bærekraftig utvikling", "etikk", and "miljøbevegelsen". This brings the number of writing days so far this Spring up to 28, including 19,5 article writing days.
Minor edits I have made previously have now been approved in six encyclopedia articles in Store Norske Leksikon (SNL), namely "antroposentrisk", "dypøkologi", "dyreetikk", "miljøfilosofi", "rettssubjekt" and "økosofi".
Earlier this week, my essay "På sporet av en tapt fremtid" (roughly translating to "In search of a lost future"), which deals with longtermism, was published online in Salongen - nettidsskrift for filosofi og idéhistorie.
Reference:
— Tønnessen, Morten 2026. På sporet av en tapt fremtid. Essay. Salongen – nettidsskrift for filosofi og idéhistorie (Salongen.no). Published March 9th 2026. URL: https://www.salongen.no/essay/pa-sporet-av-en-tapt-fremtid/262022
Today I attended a meeting at the Norwegian Ministry of Finance, in Oslo, representing Norway´s Council for animal ethics (along with the council´s secretary Lina Ahlén and chair Knut E. Bøe) in a consultation a committe that is tasked with suggesting changes to the ethics framework of the Norwegian "oil fund" (formally called Government Pension Fund Global, or Statens Pensjonsfond Utland in Norwegian) organized with selected civil society organizations. Lina and I jointly presented "SPU og dyrevelferd" (Government Pension Fund Global and animal welfare), with definitions, information and recommendations addressed to the committee.
Today I have had an article writing day, with some 800 words added to Store Norske Leksikon, primarily the new encyclopedia article "miljøetikk" (environmental ethics), but also links to that article from a number of related articles. This brings the number of writing days so far this Spring up to 14,5, including 10,5 article writing days.
Yesterday and today I have given the third seminar in Ex.phil. this Autumn, at University of Stavanger´s Department of social studies, in two rounds, with altogether some 95 students attending. The course is part of the bachelor in psychology as well as the year-long study in psychology. Today´s topics included ethics, academic writing and argumentation with emphasis on logics, and orientation about a compulsory submission.
Today I have given the fourth lecture in Ex.phil. this Autumn, at University of Stavanger´s Department of social studies. The course is part of the bachelor in psychology as well as the year-long study in psychology. Today´s topics were metaethics and virtue ethics.
Today I have finished half an article writing day, with some 1.400 words written in the process of composing an abstract prepared in relation to an upcoming special issue of The Journal of Ethics, on the theme "Climate ethics: Prospects and Retrospectives". My paper is titled "The ethical case against Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)". This was writing day #29 this Autumn (starting July 1st).
Over the last days of this week I have also made a prioritised writing plan for the rest of this Autumn.
By now (or rather by the writing day I had August 8th, when I finished the Captured manuscript) I have written more in 2025 than any previous year on record. In 2021, when I worked on the book Semiotic agency, co-written with Alexei Sharov, among other writing projects, I logged 84.739 words written. By now in 2025 I have already logged 86.459 words written, mostly owing to my work on Captured.
This morning I was interviewed live on Norwegian national TV and radio, in the NRK program Nyhetsmorgen, which is broadcasted on NRK1 (TV) and P1 (radio), in the news feature "Etikk rundt kloning av dyr" (Ethics about cloning of animals). The news feature related to a news story published last weekend about Kristin G. Andresen´s cloning of a horse. Marte Kaasa Arntsen was the program host.
Monday this week, June 16th, I attended the meeting of Norway´s Council for animal ethics, in Oslo.
I have been recruited as responsible (fagansvarlig) for environmental ethics in Store Norske Leksikon, which is the largest and most read edited encyclopedia in Norway and written by professionals. The category now also includes animal ethics.
Today I have attended, co-chaired, and presented at the seminar "Ethics in a time of animal crisis", held at university of Stavanger at the occasion of Alice Crary´s Steffens lecture 2024 at University of Stavanger (November 21st), and co-organised by Cato Wittusen and me. Some 25 people attended the seminar, which featured presentations by Hannah Winther, Dolly Jørgensen and me, with Alice Crary and the audience responding. My talk was titled «The range of dignity and suffering».
Today I have given the fourth lecture in Ex.Phil. this term, as part of the University of Stavanger´s bachelor degree in psychology. The topics were metaethics and virtue ethics.
I have over the last few days taken part in the grading of 35 exam papers in the University of Stavanger´s bachelor in psychology course in law and ethics, along with course coordinator Eva Næsheim, with responsibility for the ethics answer, which was one of four assignments.
Today I have been teaching for 3 hours. First I gave a 1-hour digital seminar in the department´s master course in environmental psychology, the topic was ecology and lifeworld. Then, straight after, I gave a physical 2-hour seminar in the department´s bachelor course in law and ethics, for bachelor students in psychology, focussed on occupational ethics and summary of the ethics teaching in the course. This concludes my teaching in both courses this Spring.
