The world comes together to tackle climate change

Ambitious targets have been set for reducing carbon emissions. Deployment of CCS technology at scale can increase the possibility of meeting climate targets.

We need to increase the efficiency of our energy consumption and promote sources of non-fossil fuel energy. Yet despite advances in these areas and technological leaps forward in renewables such as solar, wind and hydropower, the world is in danger of failing to meet those targets. In turn, we are in danger of failing our responsibility to future generations. Energy intensive industry accounts for 25% of global CO₂ emissions and cannot go down to zero without CCS.

Experts highlight CCS deployment

Carbon capture and storage can play an important role in reducing the CO₂ emissions. CCS can prevent large amounts of CO₂ from entering the atmosphere at large industrial point sources and if the fuel is biogenic, CCS can actually contribute to reducing CO₂ in the atmosphere. Clean hydrogen can be made by steam reforming of natural gas and by storing the byproduct CO₂.

We face an unprecedented challenge in achieving climate objectives. Without CCS, this challenge becomes infinitely greater. CCS will be critical for delivering the deep emission reductions needed across fossil fuel-based power and many industrial applications while providing the opportunity for “negative emissions” (IEA report, ‘Five Keys to Unlock CCS Investment).

Deployment of CCS technology at scale can increase the possibility of meeting climate targets.International research is increasingly supportive of this view, with many recent reports pointing to the importance of CCS to achieve climate goals.

In autumn 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 degrees showed the role which CCS had to play in three of their four scenarios.
An earlier IPCC Special Report on 2 degrees warming also pointed to the crucial role of CCS.
The International Energy Agency agrees. In its report ‘Five Keys to Unlock CCS Investment’, the world’s foremost authority on energy policy not only declared CCS to be critical in reducing atmospheric carbon levels but lauded its commercial viability.

CCS in Europe

When in November 2018, the EU Commission released its 2050 Climate Strategy, CCS was deemed necessary in all eight scenarios analysed by the report. The policy will be developed further in 2019, by member states and the European Parliament.
If CCS is to materialize at scale within the coming decade, a much larger research innovation and demonstration effort will also be needed to ensure its deployment… (European Commission 2050 Climate Strategy Report).

On September 5, the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, Gassnova and the European Commission gathered key policy makers from politics and industry to a high-level conference on CCS in Oslo. Among the participants in the conference were Norway’s Minister of Petroleum and Energy, the Minister of Climate and Environment and the Secretary General of the UN Climate Convention UNFCC, Patricia Espinosa. Several letters of intent were also signed between Equinor on behalf of the partners in the Northern Lights CO₂ storage project and various European industrial companies. The recognition that CO₂ capture and storage is one of several vital tools for climate neutrality in the EU in 2050 was a pervasive main message in addition to financing models for the climate measure.

The new EU President Ursula von der Leyen already weeks before she started on November 1, published a Mission Letter to her incoming commissioners. Dutch Frans Timmermans has been given the responsibility for the “European Green Deal”, which is a new term in the commission embracing what is today called “Climate Action”. During its first 100 days, Timmermans will develop a comprehensive plan, including a climate law that makes the goal of climate neutrality by 2050 legally binding. About natural gas, von der Leyen states that it will have a role to play in the transition towards a carbon neutral economy, and in particular through the use of CCS.

Read more about CCS in Europe here: Zero Emissions Platform
Read more about international CCS development here: Global CCS Institute or here