Countries around the globe are spending billions of their citizen's money to accelerate CCS deployment while ignoring critical knowledge gaps and their potential implications. Greenpeace is urging governments to look before they leap: "The future of the planet is being gambled on a technological solution that could turn out to be an end of the pipe dream. Governments need to invest in proven solutions like wind, solar and the smarter use of power." said Emily Rochon, climate and energy campaigner for Greenpeace International.
Scientific research says that if we want to avoid catastrophic climate change, global greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2015 and fall dramatically thereafter. That leaves about six years to shift energy systems to a low emissions pathway.
"The sometimes singular focus on CCS threatens to derail implementation of readily available solutions and cause us to miss this critical window. Time is running out," said Peter Haugan, Professor at the Geophysical Institute, University of Bergen, Norway, and an authors of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change special report on CCS.[2]
CCS for commercial use on coal plants is not expected to be ready before 2020. Even then, the optimistic predictions regarding its ability to radically cut emissions from coal power stations are unlikely to pan out. Greenpeace's own Energy Revolution scenario shows that proven solutions such as energy efficiency and renewable energy can achieve ambitious emission reductions, in both the short- and long-term, if we start implementing them today.
In the midst of climate and economic crises, Greenpeace is calling upon governments to prioritize investments in these technologies to kick-start the new energy economy and tackle climate change.
"Rehabilitating the economy and protecting the climate will only happen if we prioritize investments in clean, renewable energy," continued Rochon. "Continuing to burn coal and grasping at straws like CCS will ensure that we fail on both fronts."
Notes
[1] The report is available for download at http://www.greenpeace.org/utsira
it discusses changing estimates of the storage capacity of the Utsira formation, unpredicted CO2 movements in the Sleipner formation as well as difficulties encountered in monitoring and managing other non-CO2 injection projects.
[2] Specifically, Dr. Haugan was a lead author for Chapter 6 of thereport, which focused on ocean storage. The full report is availableat: http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/srccs.htm
For more information:
Emily Rochon, CCS Policy Coordinator, Greenpeace International, +31 (0)6 4618 4250 or 
Truls Gulowsen, Programme Manager for Greenpeace in Norway, +47 90 10 79 04 or 
Bente Myhre Haast, Greenpeace Norway Press Officer, +47 48 29 72 74 or 
Dr. Peter Haugan, Geophysical Institute, University of Bergen, +47 55 58 22 678 or +47 46 62 11 14