Regional politics

Scientists and industry agree that the next logical step to advance the development of CCS is to build full-scale demonstration projects. But are the politicians up to this challenge? Will they spend billions of dollars, euros or yen of public money on CCS demonstration projects? Politicians all over the world are becoming interested in CCS, but there are regional differences. Australia, Canada and Europe have taken the most bold political decisions to advance CCS. Read more on regional political initiatives to further CCS development below.

It was a great day for CCS enthusiasts when the European Parliament endorsed the energy package December 17, 2008. The energy package is a set of new directives that aims to improve energy security in Europe and make energy production greener. CCS is an important part of the energy package, and a new directive with guidelines for CO₂ storage will probably establish a long-awaited regulatory framwork for CCS in Europe.

The energy package also contains a revision of the EU Emission Trading Scheme which is a mechanism for trading CO₂ emission allowances. An interesting part of the revised EU ETS is that it sets aside 300 million emission allowances for finansing of CCS demonstration projects. This will equal about 6-9 billion euros, depending on future allowance prices.

With the new energy package EU politicians are among the most ambitious in the world in accelerating CCS development.

Australia is also a leader in CCS development. In 2005, Australia was the first country to endorse national regulations for CCS. Australia is also spending considerable public funding on research and CCS pilot and demonstration programs.

Australia is also planning to establish an international CCS institute in 2009 as a follow up to the recommendation by the G8 leaders to build 20 large-scale CCS demonstration projects throughout the world. The aim of the new CCS institute is to facilitate the building of these demonstration plants.

CCS is also on the political agenda in Canada, which is one of the leading countries in CCS development. Substantial public funding is in place to ensure further development of CCS, and many promising research activities are taking place in Canada.

Interest in CCS is growing in the USA. Some years ago the USA was in the lead with the FutureGen project, which was believed to the most promising CCS demonstration project at the time. However, the FutureGen project did not progress as planned. Due to delays and funding problems connected to the project, the USA lost some of its leading edge in CCS development.

But that is about to change. The new President, Barack Obama, is already showing bold political leadership in establishing a new US energy and climate policy to make american power production greener. In addition, President Obama is serious in his policy to combat global warming. These new political policies will most likely put the USA on the leading front in developing CCS.

Norway is on the leading edge in CCS research, and the country could be among the first countries to build a full-scale CCS project. There are plans to use public funding to build full-scale CCS already in 2012 by capturing CO₂ from the gas power plant at Kårstø on the western coast of Norway.

The CCS plans related to the gas power plant and refinery at Mongstad, also on Norway's west coast, are even more interesting. In the first phase, a pilot for CO₂ capture will be built and put into operation by 2010. The pilot will be partly financed by public money. The aim is to carry out research to improve CO₂ capture technologies. Finally, a full-scale CO₂ capture plant will be put in operation by 2014 along with transport and storage of the CO₂. The full scale CO2 capture plant will be financed by public money.

China is building several new coal power plants each month, without CCS. As a consequence Chinese CO₂ emissions are sky rocketing, but this also means that the potential for CCS is huge in China.

There is political interest in China in CCS. This is exemplified by the GreenGen project where full-scale CCS is being planned.

However, China is not spending much money on public funding of CCS. China views climate challenge as the result of large volumes of CO₂ emitted by western industry since the start of the industrial revolution. As a consequence, Chinese officials argue that the western world should pay for developing emission reduction technologies like CCS. This argument is not rejected by developed countries, and technology transfer from industrialised countries to developing countries is a central part of the international CCS debate.

Most developing countries have the same political view as China. They would like to see CCS become a reality, but they believe that the industrialised countries should pay for developing the technology.

Many emerging economies have concrete plans for developing CCS. Ministers in South Africa has been talking about prohibiting fossil fuel power plants and factories that are without CCS. Brazil is even more ambitious as they are planning a full-scale CCS project by 2015.