News
Publish date: May 27, 2009
Written by: Tone Foss Aspevoll
Translated by: Camilla Langsholt
News
The climate conference held in Bergen in West Norway aims to enlighten the possibilities of CO2 capture and storage (CCS) to global warming.
The Norwegian Government will earmark the European Economic Area Grants money to CCS projects in selected member states in the European Union (EU) over a period of five years.
Bellona encouraged the Norwegian government to use half of the EEA Grants on a CCS project in Poland already at last years Conference on Europe in Oslo. Poland poses an important climate challenge with 95 percent of their electricity production originating from coal-fired power plants. The financing of a CCS project would send strong signal effects to the Polish government of the importance of this technology.
CCS is needed to meet the challenge of climate change
“The attitude towards CCS is evolving internationally every day, said Frederic Hauge,” Bellona president and vice-chair of the European Commission’s Zero Emission Fossil Fuel Power Plants Technology Platform.
Hauge is participating at the CCS conference in Bergen together with amongst others Rajendra Pachauri, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and the chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Nobuo Tanaka, the Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, together with a number of Ministers from all around the world.
Both Pachauri and Tanaka believe that CO2 capture and storage is a technology we need to fight climate change.
Crucial to reach the 2 degrees Celsius goal
“There is still a fair bit of resistance towards CCS, but until now I have not met anyone that can convince me that we can reach the 2 degrees Celsius goal without this technology,” says Frederic Hauge.
If the global temperature increases more than 2 degrees Celsius, the world will be challenged with extremely dangerous climate changes.
Bellona has over several years promoted CCS as one of several technologies to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.
Bellona’s report How to Combat Global Warming (2008) is one of several reports showing that this technology makes it possible to reduce the world’s emissions of greenhouse gases with one third.
For more information please consult Bellona’s CCS-web.
A new weapon
“We don’t have much time, therefore we need to use all possible solutions to fight climate change. CCS is not a replacement for other initiatives needed,” said Pachauri during the conference in Bergen.
“In Bali, no one talked about CCS. Today we understand that this is a technology necessary to stop global warming. If there is one technology appropriate for this aim, it is CCS,” said Tanaka.
Opposition to CCS
The main opposition against CCS claims the technology to be expensive and not yet properly developed.
“We can not give up just because we are late, “says Frederic Hauge.
The leader of Greenpeace Norway, Truls Gulowsen, has criticized the strong focus on CCS in the fight against climate change.
“Greenpeace is not serious about climate change if they do not take CCS seriously. If the aim is to stay below 2 degrees Celsius, we need a 90 percent cut in emissions globally,” said Hauge.
“To this end, the rich countries need to use carbon negative energy and CCS will be crucial.”
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