Carbon capture, storage a global duty
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Reaction from Chinese policymakers has been positive. The National Development and Reform Commission announced its membership in August of the Global CCS Institute, an organization that is committed to removing the barriers to the employment of CCS technology.
This is all about impacts and opportunities. Dealing with climate change presents some extraordinary opportunities for countries - particularly China - that place themselves in the vanguard.
On that level we need to grasp the issue in purely economic terms. The financial implications are potentially enormous. This is about jobs. This is about money.
We do not claim CCS is the be-all and end-all, but we owe it to future generations to explore the feasibility of the technology as fully as possible. Critics argue that new technologies will emerge and replace CCS in 50 years. But the simple fact is that 50 years is too late. Emissions cannot continue to increase; sooner or later the tipping point has to be reached. CCS may be a transitional technology but it is an essential one.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, it could bring about a 90 percent reduction in emissions from power stations and other industrial sources of CO2. If successful, it will rapidly become a worldwide industry - and, of course, one with a worldwide goal.
We should not overlook, too, the plain fact that energy-intensive societies rely on the sheer calorific value of fossil fuels. Most nations would need literally to cover themselves in wind turbines to satisfy their electricity requirements. A commitment to carbon capture and storage is therefore a commitment to a way of life: CCS represents the only method of employing a fossil fuel and mitigating its effects.
Professor Mike Stephenson is director of the UK-based National Centre for Carbon Capture and Storage and Professor Mercedes Maroto-Valer is the centre's chief scientific officer.
