Defossilisation: A Structural Correction, not a Climate Slogan,

CEWT Foundation Series – 6 Defossilisation: A Structural Correction, Not a Climate Slogan The global energy debate is still trapped in the language of “decarbonisation.” Lower emissions. Higher efficiency. Offsets. Carbon burial. But this framing avoids the real structural issue. The problem is not carbon. The problem is fossil carbon extraction. For two centuries, we have treated geological carbon—formed over hundreds of millions of years—as disposable fuel. We extract it, oxidise it, and release it into the active biosphere faster than natural cycles can rebalance it. That is not an emissions problem. It is a system architecture problem. Defossilisation means eliminating new geological carbon from entering the industrial energy system. It replaces: Extract → Burn → Emit → Accumulate with: Capture → Convert → Reuse → Recirculate Carbon is not waste. Carbon is a recyclable carrier. Renewable electricity produces hydrogen. Hydrogen acts as a reductant. Captured CO₂ becomes the carbon carrier. Methanation closes the loop. Combustion releases CO₂ again — which is recaptured. Energy flows. Carbon circulates. No offset accounting games. No permanent burial dependency. No illusion of “net zero” through statistical balancing. Just mass balance. From a microeconomic perspective, defossilisation removes the structural risks embedded in fossil systems: • Geological depletion risk • Geopolitical exposure • Commodity volatility • Stranded asset probability • Carbon border taxes and regulatory escalation It reallocates capital from depleting reservoirs to regenerative industrial infrastructure. Risk decreases. Predictability increases. Cost of capital falls. Even without climate ideology, defossilisation makes acute economic sense. It reduces sovereign vulnerability, strengthens domestic energy architecture, and aligns industrial systems with thermodynamic reality. Extracting ancient carbon is not modernity. It is architectural inertia. Defossilisation is the correction. Carbon is not the enemy. Unbalanced extraction is. Correct the structure — and the system stabilises. CEWT – Clean Energy and Water Technologies Carbon as Carrier. Hydrogen as Reductant. System Architecture Matters.