New report: Carbon dioxide storage could play major role in combating climate change, but only if key constraints are addressed; Assessment by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change finalized today
MONTREAL, (UNEP/WMO) -- A new assessment report finalized here today by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes that capturing and storing the carbon dioxide (CO2) produced by power plants and factories before it enters the atmosphere could play a major role in minimizing climate change.
"While the most important solutions to climate change will remain energy efficiency and cleaner energy sources, this new report demonstrates that capturing and storing carbon dioxide can supplement these other efforts", said Executive Director Klaus Toepfer of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
"Since emissions of carbon dioxide -- the most important cause of climate change -- continue to rise in many parts of the world, it is vital that we exploit every available option for reducing their impact on the global climate. CO2 capture and storage can clearly play a supporting role", said Secretary-General Michel Jarraud of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
According to a number of studies, carbon dioxide capture and storage technologies (known as CCS) could lower the costs of mitigating climate change over the next 100 years by 30 per cent or more. In addition, capture and storage of CO2 in geological formations could account for 15 to 55 per cent of all emission reductions (equal to 220 to 2,200 billion tonnes (Gt) of CO2) needed between now and 2100 for stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.
Many components of carbon dioxide capture and storage technology are already mature, including several applications of CO2 capture, pipelines and gas injection into geological formations. Three CCS projects are already in operation, in Algeria, Canada and the North Sea off the Norwegian coast.
CO2 capture from...