Why: details

Global warming is one of the biggest challenges facing mankind. If no action is taken to limit global warming, there will be disasterous consequences including: more extreme weather occurrences such as flooding and draughts, rising sea levels, reduction of drinking water, spreading of diseases and extinction of endangered species. The solution is to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. CO2 is the most important GHG, and CCS is one of the main mechanisms to cut global CO2 emissions.

According to the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) it is imperative that we prevent a global warming of more than 2^oC in order to stop the most dramatic consequences of climate change. Most scientific evidence tells us that the global temperature can increase by more than 2^oC by the end of this century if no actions are taken.

Global warming: Radiation from the sun is reflected by the earth. However, due to the increasing level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, radiation is reflected back from the atmosphere to the earth. This leads to global warming.

One of the consequences of global warming above 2^oC will be the melting of glaciers, which leads to reduced water and food resources. In addition, the sea level will rise, and there will be more extreme weather events, more storms, draughts and floods.

In fact, if no action is taken to reduce global warming, 25 percent of all species on our globe could become extinct. Furthermore, hundreds of millions of people will be left without sufficient food and water.

The good news is that it is possible to reduce the risks of dramatic consequences by reducing GHG emissions significantly. In addition to the obvious solutions, energy efficiency, renewable energy and improved forest management, there is one more strategy that is needed, and that is CCS.

Some solutions to global warming: Electrical cars and low energy houses with power production from solar cells.

CCS is a technology for removing CO₂ from large emission sources like coal and gas power plants as well as large industrial plants. Please look at our animation to see how CCS works.

More solutions to global warming: wind energy and a biomass power plant with CCS.

Large stationary CO₂ sources like fossil fuel power plants, refineries and industrial plants for production of steel, cement and ammonia account for about 50 percent of global CO₂ emissions. If CCS is applied to these plants most of their CO₂ emissions can be eliminated.

This means that CCS can contribute to significant reductions in global CO₂ emissions.

However, there are few large-scale CCS projects to date. Several challenges remain to be solved, but it is possible that CCS can become commercially viable in 2020.

Interested in knowing more? To obtain more information on why CCS is so important, look at our study.

Suggested further reading:

• The Bellona CCS position
• Why CCS is important
• How CCS works
• The potential for CCS
• CCS projects worldwide
• How to deploy CCS, including challenges and solutions
• Technical challenges for rapid and widespread CCS deployment