The underground storage of CO2 can achieve substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in a world faced with increasing demand for fossil fuels. This was the conclusion of an international expert workshop held at the request of G8 leaders.
The experts called for this technology to be deployed urgently as a key element in the response to climate challenge. Twenty full-scale plants each storing more than a million tonnes per year of CO2 need to be operating by 2020 worldwide, the experts concluded.
Neil Hirst, Director of the International Energy Agency’s Office of Technology, said, “Coal and other fossil fuels will continue to play a predominant role in the world’s energy supply for many decades to come. This conclusion demonstrates that a very
powerful international consensus is building on the urgency of adopting carbon dioxide capture and storage as a key emission abatement option.”
At the 2005 Gleneagles Summit, the G8 leaders asked the International Energy Agency along with the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum to hold a workshop on short-term opportunities for CCS. The event held in Calgary, Canada on 27 and 28th November follows two previous workshops in San Francisco and Oslo and brings the series to a
conclusion. Industry, government, academics and NGOs from fourteen countries participated.
In other major conclusions, the experts called for concerted international action, partnerships between the public and private sectors, and for governments to establish legal and regulatory frameworks by 2010. Public education and support was recognised as critical.
A report on the Gleneagles Plan of Action, of which these workshops formed a part, is expected to be considered at the next summit of G8 leaders under the Japanese
presidency in 2008.