The United Nation’s leading body on climate change has issued its final IPCC Climate Change Synthesis Report reaffirming that low emission technologies are a feasible and effective option for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and addressing climate change.
The report, which is authored by 300 scientists across 67 countries clearly highlights both the necessity of technologies like carbon capture and storge as well as the scale of the action required to limit global warming.
In reference to carbon capture and storage (CCS) the report’s Summary for Policy Makers notes, “CCS is an option to reduce emissions from large-scale fossil-based energy and industry sources provided geological storage is available. The technical geological storage capacity is estimated to be on the order of 1000 GtCO2, which is more than the CO2 storage requirements through 2100 to limit global warming to 1.5°C.”
Alongside CCS, the report also highlights an important role for other carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies including direct air capture and bioenergy with CCS in delivering net-zero and net-negative emissions on the path to 2050.
LETA CEO Mark McCallum, said the recognition of CCS as a critical technology was welcome but that there is more that needs to be done.
“One again we are seeing internationally recognised evidence by specialist climate change bodies like the IPCC concur that international climate change targets cannot be achieved without CCS.
“CCS is not only applicable to the energy sector —the technology and carbon storage mean it is one of the few technologies able to decarbonise other hard-to-abate industries.
“As the IPCC report finds, while CCS is “less mature” in cement and chemicals production, it is a “critical mitigation option”.
“CCS can be used to remove emissions from steel, cement and fertiliser and other products we use and rely on every day, and it can also be used to produce clean hydrogen — a zero-emission transport fuel that can also help power industry.
“LETA’s investments, while locally driven, involve technologies from around the world that can be further developed and deployed in multiple industries both here in Australia and internationally, thereby contributing to global efforts to reduce emissions.
“Government support for CCS and other low emission technologies is crucial for our collective efforts to reduce carbon emissions and will give industry confidence to accelerate their investment in and adoption of them.”
The report recognizes barriers remain to CCS deployment but suggests “enabling conditions such as policy instruments, greater public support and technological innovation could reduce these barriers.”
ENDS