Climate crisis: ‘Virtually impossible’ to hit global environment targets without new carbon capture technology, report says

Carbon dioxide emissions are the world’s biggest problem, and through the burning of fossil fuels which emit this potent greenhouse gas, our species is making it worse all the time.

As the heat rises, major initiatives aimed at cutting or reducing levels of CO2 emissions, such as the move towards renewable energy, are well underway, so too are parallel efforts which aim to suck up the CO2 still being produced by some industries and stop it from being vented into the atmosphere.

Despite carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) technologies remaining largely in their infancy and untested at scale, a major report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) now states without their rapid uptake it will be “virtually impossible” for the world to hit the climate and energy goals set under the Paris climate agreement.

Though progress to this point has been slow, with only around 20 projects in operation in countries including the US, Canada, China and Norway, the IEA says CCUS projects are now gaining momentum.

The organisation describes this headway as “a crucial part of reaching the net-zero emissions goals that a growing number of governments and companies have set for themselves.”

“The scale of the climate challenge means we need to act across a wide range of energy technologies. Carbon capture is critical for ensuring our transitions to clean energy are secure and sustainable,” said IEA executive director Dr Fatih Birol.

Norwegian prime minister Erna Solberg, who launched the IEA’s report during an online event, said: “In order to develop and deploy carbon capture and storage as a technology for the future we need investments in solutions and facilities in many regions and countries.”

“CCUS will be necessary on a global scale if we are to meet the Paris agreement. And we must start now.”

Carbon capture has long been used as a catch-all term for various technologies, mostly for catching the CO2 emissions from industry, but also for methods designed to draw CO2 directly out of the atmosphere.

At the moment they are most commonly used to trap CO2 in power plant and factory chimneys through use of solvent filters.

Once trapped, the gas can then be piped to where it can be used.

While some can be injected deep into the Earth’s crust where much of it originated, and some can be used in the carbonation of fizzy drinks, or in the production of plastics, some captured carbon is currently transported by pipeline by companies which inject it into oil wells in order to dig up more fossil fuels. This process is known as enhanced oil recovery.

The indication that damaging greenhouse gases can be effectively and inexpensively caught before they damage the planet has made it popular among fossil fuel companies as a potential fix which environmental campaigners have warned could allow them to keep producing emissions.

Many firms are now planning to spend vast sums on developing these largely unproven technologies.

The IEA states there are now plans for more than 30 commercial CCUS facilities to be built, all of which were announced in the last three years.

The agency said projects now nearing a final investment decision represent an estimated potential investment of around $27bn – more than double the investment planned in 2017.

The IEA report sets out the four main ways that CCUS technologies could potentially contribute to cleaning up the energy sector:

- Tackling emissions from existing energy infrastructure such as power and industrial plants

- Providing a solution for some of the most challenging emissions from heavy industries like cement and chemicals, as well as from aviation

- Offering a cost-effective pathway for low-carbon hydrogen production in many regions

- Removing CO2 from the atmosphere.

“Action from governments will be essential for establishing a sustainable and viable market for CCUS,” Dr Birol said.

“But industry must also embrace the opportunity. No sector will be unaffected by clean energy transitions – and for some, including heavy industry, the value of CCUS is inescapable.”

In the UK two large CCUS projects are underway. These are at the Drax biomass burning units at its power station in North Yorkshire, where the company will attempt to cut emissions and sell a compressed form of carbon for use in other industrial purposes, and another project in Aberdeen aims to capture carbon from three large industrial sites which could then be used in the production of hydrogen fuel from natural gas.