Greens, Industry Urge Fast EU Action to Bury CO2
Date: 02-Jul-08
Country: BELGIUM
Author: Pete Harrison
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is seen by industry and some EU lawmakers as a possible silver bullet in the fight against climate change as it could curb emissions from coal plants, which are multiplying rapidly in India and China.
But it has never been tested on a commercial scale and it is strongly opposed by some environmentalists, who argue it is unsafe, will not be ready in time and could divert investment from truly green sources of power.
Other environmentalists say it is a necessary evil.
Commercial scale CCS must be ready by 2015-2020, the coalition wrote in a letter to energy and environment ministers meeting in Paris from Thursday, and seen by Reuters on Tuesday.
The eight include environment groups Bellona and E3G and energy companies Fortum, Shell and Vattenfall.
"By 2050 fossil fuel power plants throughout the world will generally have to operate with CCS -- Europe must play a leading role in this," said the letter, which was also sent to Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs and Environment Commissioner Stavrios Dimas.
The EU plans to have up to 12 CCS pilot projects running by 2015, but none have yet been built.
"The generally ambitious EU climate and energy package of legislative proposals urgently needs strengthening to enable this to happen," said the letter.
"We jointly call for urgent decisions by the EU institutions to support a transitional project demonstration mechanism," it added. "A well-constructed programme of demonstration projects starting early next decade is necessary."
Shell has calculated that a seven year delay in the world's known CCS projects means 90-100 billion tonnes of avoidable CO2 emissions being released into the atmosphere, it added.
It called urgently for a mechanism that would grant permits to demonstration projects under the EU emissions trading scheme.
"Such a mechanism should be time- and volume-limited, transparent, competitive, and market-based and be part of a roadmap to mass CCS deployment in Europe," it said.
(Reporting by Pete Harrison)