Going underground to reduce emissions
By Jennifer Rankin - 26.03.2009 / 00:00 CET
Carbon capture and storage is seen by many as a promising response to climate change.
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© 2012 European Voice. All rights reserved.
NEW TECHNOLOGY The CCS plant in the German district of Schwarze Pumpe. REUTERS
Fact file
No carbon copies
If and when the EU does get 10-12 CCS test projects up and running, they will not all be the same.
Politicians and businesses are looking to test as many variations as possible.
First they will test different types of coal and possibly a gas-fired power station.
Then they will test the different ways of capturing CO
2
as well as how to transport it; whether by ship or by cross-border pipeline.
Finally, the projects will test different options for burying CCS, both onshore and offshore. This is likely to prove the most politically-sensitive part of the trials.
Chris Davies, a British Liberal MEP and keen supporter of CCS, has said that storage should start off under deserts and seas, but not under towns and cities.
He thinks that there could be strong public resistance to storing CO
2
underground close to where people live.
For CCS companies, this could be a critical public relations issue, no less important than the current debate over financing the technology.
British parliamentarians fear businesses could relocate to other countries.
Member states asked to submit security reports; more than €30m of allowances were stolen.
The cyber-attacks on the emissions-trading system highlight the need for a rapid strengthening of the security of national registries.
One industry shows how the climate-change split between the developed and developing can be bridged.
There are limits to providing a good example in isolation, and 20% is the current limit.
