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IEA chief calls for investment in carbon capture technology
Source: Agencies |
October 14, 2009, Wednesday
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THE world needs to build 100 major projects for capturing and burying greenhouse gases by 2020 and thousands more by 2050 to help combat climate change, International Energy Agency chief Nobuo Tanaka said yesterday.
Energy ministers meeting in London said the world must start building by next year at least 20 commercial-scale pilot projects to test a technology which United States Energy Secretary Steven Chu said could solve "20 percent of the problem" to curb carbon.
The drive, mostly to capture emissions from coal-fired power stations, would cost US$56 billion by 2020 alone, said Tanaka. Carbon-capture funding could be a key part of a new United Nations climate treaty due to be agreed in Copenhagen in December.
"We will need 100 large-scale projects by 2020, 850 by 2030 and 3,400 in 2050," Tanaka told the ministers at a carbon capture and storage (CCS) conference.
A few industrial-scale projects are in operation, including in Norway, Canada and Algeria, but none tests all parts of the capture process.
The IEA estimates that after the US$56 billion investment in CCS globally from 2010-2020, a further US$646 billion will be needed from 2021 to 2030, Tanaka told the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum.
UN studies indicate that CCS could do more to limit greenhouse gas emissions this century than a shift to renewable energies such as wind or solar power. CCS has been limited by high costs.
"We call upon the delegates to the United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen to recognize the importance of CCS in mitigating climate change," said a closing statement from the 15 ministers, including those from the US, Europe and China.
"The world's biggest coal-using nations recognize we cannot continue with business as usual on coal," British Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said. "We need a mechanism which will at least provide the opportunity for developing countries to get help with financing some of the incremental costs of their projects."
Talks on the new UN climate deal made little progress at a two-week session that ended in Bangkok last week, partly because of disputes between rich and poor nations about sharing out the burden of curbs on greenhouse gas emissions.
So far, few nations have agreed to invest heavily in carbon-capture technologies - nations including China, the United States, Australia, Britain and have projects.
Energy ministers meeting in London said the world must start building by next year at least 20 commercial-scale pilot projects to test a technology which United States Energy Secretary Steven Chu said could solve "20 percent of the problem" to curb carbon.
The drive, mostly to capture emissions from coal-fired power stations, would cost US$56 billion by 2020 alone, said Tanaka. Carbon-capture funding could be a key part of a new United Nations climate treaty due to be agreed in Copenhagen in December.
"We will need 100 large-scale projects by 2020, 850 by 2030 and 3,400 in 2050," Tanaka told the ministers at a carbon capture and storage (CCS) conference.
A few industrial-scale projects are in operation, including in Norway, Canada and Algeria, but none tests all parts of the capture process.
The IEA estimates that after the US$56 billion investment in CCS globally from 2010-2020, a further US$646 billion will be needed from 2021 to 2030, Tanaka told the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum.
UN studies indicate that CCS could do more to limit greenhouse gas emissions this century than a shift to renewable energies such as wind or solar power. CCS has been limited by high costs.
"We call upon the delegates to the United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen to recognize the importance of CCS in mitigating climate change," said a closing statement from the 15 ministers, including those from the US, Europe and China.
"The world's biggest coal-using nations recognize we cannot continue with business as usual on coal," British Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said. "We need a mechanism which will at least provide the opportunity for developing countries to get help with financing some of the incremental costs of their projects."
Talks on the new UN climate deal made little progress at a two-week session that ended in Bangkok last week, partly because of disputes between rich and poor nations about sharing out the burden of curbs on greenhouse gas emissions.
So far, few nations have agreed to invest heavily in carbon-capture technologies - nations including China, the United States, Australia, Britain and have projects.
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