Climate goals will go unmet without CCS

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It will be practically impossible to meet the future global demand for energy and combat climate change without enlisting the global use of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). CCS must be placed in the service of widespread adoption of clean coal technologies, especially given the growing importance of China and India as major energy consumers. We need to take a reality check on our future world energy balance.
Coal will be an important cornerstone of the world energy mix for the foreseeable future, driven largely by concerns over security of supply. This has been confirmed by a recent WEC study, "Deciding the Future: Energy Policy Scenarios to 2050." That is because the world's largest regions and countries are well supplied with coal: Regional reserves in the U.S., China and India are abundant enough to secure energy demand for a few centuries, while Europe has ample access to coal imported from a variety of sources. Coal will also be vital to meet another goal, securing a broad mix of supply for producing electricity to meet the world's projected long-term growth in energy demand, with especially strong growth in developing countries. With growth in electricity production comes a consequent growth in emissions. In this regard, CCS technology is urgently needed to help rein in an expected surge in emissions from the rapidly-growing economies of the developing world, notably China and India. The share of developing countries' emissions is predicted to outpace the developed world, reaching 52% of global emissions by 2030, up from 39% in 2004, according to the WEC publication, "Carbon Capture and Storage."
But without technology transfer of CCS and other clean technologies, climate change goals, such as stabilizing and reducing global emissions, will not be reached. There are two major obstacles to transferring CCS and other clean technology at present: safeguarding intellectual property rights is a major worry of energy supply companies.
Developing countries also need additional financial support. For this, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) could be of use. The CDM should enlarge its remit beyond renewable energy, to embrace fossil fuels, such as clean coal technologies, since developing countries must rely on fossil fuels to a large extent as a part of their energy mix.
Developed regions are researching and delivering technological solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Pilot and demonstration projects in the U.S., Europe and Australia are developing, implementing and testing out CCS technologies to find the best technological solution, to advance CCS to commercial viability.
European countries are able and willing to take the know-how and technology they have developed, to help developing regions lower their abatement costs for clean energy technologies, such as CCS, which is absolutely essential to keep electricity affordable, and thus widely accessible to all consumers. There is no time to waste. Developing regions need to act urgently, too.

Source: www.worldenergy.org, By Stefan Ulreich, cross-commodity trader for E.ON and advisor to European Vice-Chair of the WEC.