The unproven technology for capturing the global warming gas
carbon dioxide (CO2) from power station smokestacks and then
dumping it underground is still on the drawing board. However, coal
and power companies are exploiting the notion of so-called "capture
ready" power plants to justify building new coal-fired power
stations with no guarantee that CCS would ever be retrofitted to
'capture' CO2. Coal-fired power stations are the largest single
source of CO2 emissions and the greatest threat to the climate.
"Carbon capture and storage is a scam. It is the ultimate coal
industry pipe dream," said the report's author, Emily Rochon,
climate and energy campaigner at Greenpeace International. "It is
insanity verging on criminal negligence to pass up clean energy and
instead pin hopes on an unproven technology. Governments and
businesses need to reduce their emissions not search for excuses
for continuing to burn coal."
Fraught with uncertainties over practicality and cost, CCS
technology is not expected to be technically feasible before 2030
at best. If it ever matures, CCS will therefore arrive on the scene
too late to play a role in combating climate change over the
crucial next few years, or even decades. The consensus among
climate experts is that global greenhouse gas emissions must peak
by 2015 and be at least halved by 2050.
Futile investments in CCS threaten to starve existing clean
renewable energy initiatives and energy-saving efforts of
much-needed funds to ensure that dangerous climate change is
prevented.
Enthusiasm for CCS is reaching fever pitch among coal and oil
advocates who have lost the battle over whether climate change is a
problem. Unable to look beyond the carbon economy, they are
desperate to project CCS as the way to continue with
'pollution-as-usual'.
The Greenpeace report shows that the technology falls short on
numerous counts. Carbon capture technology has not been made to
work on anything approaching the level needed for a full-scale
power plant. And, no one has yet successfully combined the
'capture' with the 'storage' elements of the concept. The increased
energy requirements of CCS would effectively wipe out the power
plant efficiency gains of the last 50 years. For every four
CCS-equipped coal-fired power plants, a fifth would be needed to
make up the energy shortfall. CCS could also double plant costs and
lead to electricity price hikes estimated between 21 and 91 per
cent. Storing CO2 underground also carries significant risks.
Long-term leakage rates as low as 1 per cent could cancel out any
climate benefit. The potential environmental impacts also open up
entirely new issues of liability.
Governments are being rushed by energy interests into throwing
vast sums of public money at CCS. In the United States, legislation
introduced on Capitol Hill (Climate Security Act, S. 2191) would
allocate US $424 billion to a dedicated fund for CCS. The European
Commission recently published a hasty and ill thought-out proposal
for a draft Directive - an EU-wide law - on the geological storage
of carbon dioxide. The Commission is under pressure from power and
energy lobbies to provide financial incentives for CCS. Australian
Federal and State governments are devoting well over AUS $1 billion
to CCS and "clean coal" projects, and Canada's Minister of Natural
Resources has created a CA $125 million fund to develop CCS.
"Depending on the potential availability of CCS to capture
emissions is about as smart as wilfully contracting a disease in
the hope that medical science may one day provide a cure," said
Emily Rochon.
In contrast, Greenpeace's Energy Revolution scenario shows that
greatly improving energy efficiency and relying on renewable energy
could halve global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, the timeframe
for preventing the worst impacts of climate change. Global
renewable energy resources are sufficient to meet the world's
energy needs six times over.
Over 100 non-governmental organisations from more than 20
countries have joined Greenpeace in demanding that CCS not be used
as an excuse for building new coal-fired power plants. Governments
should instead give priority to investing in sustainable energy
solutions.
VVPR info: Emily Rochon, Climate & Energy Campaigner, Greenpeace International. Mobile: +1 607 242 1828Jane Kochersperger, Media Officer, Greenpeace USA. Tel: + 1 202 319 2493;Mobile: + 1 202 680 3798Andrew Kerr, Communication Project Manager, Greenpeace International. Tel: +31 6 4616 2020Press desk, Greenpeace International. Tel: +31 20 718 2470
Notes: The following materials are available at: www.greenpeace.org/ccs1. “False Hope: why carbon capture and storage won’t save the climate”, Greenpeace International. May 2008.2. The Executive Summary of the report.3. An information sheet on CCS.4. Three graphics (as PDFs) showing:- the process of carbon capture;- an overview of geological storage options;- leakage pathways and potential impacts of CO2 escape5. NGO statement on carbon capture and storage