Politics

CCS technology exists, but only a few large-scale projects are in operation. Our politicians will play an important role in changing this situation by ensuring that CCS projects are implemented worldwide. Bold political leadership is required to establish the regulations and incentives that are necessary to ensure that industry builds factories and power plants with CCS, instead of without CCS as they do today.

Introduction to CCS and its politics

Today CCS does not lead to significant CO₂ emission reductions because there are only a few large CCS projects. But that is about to change because companies and countries are exploring how CCS could be the main instrument to combat global warming.

Global leaders will play an important role in the further development of CCS. Not only must there be improvements in technology and reductions in costs. Politicians must also do their job when it comes to establishing regulations and incentives to accelerate the development of CCS technology.

First of all, world leaders must agree on ambitious CO₂ emission reduction targets, and they must include CCS in their mechanisms for how to achieve their targets. Hopefully, this will be the result of the important international climate negotiations hosted by the UN in Cancun in December 2010.

There is also a need to establish a legal framework that permits the storage of CO₂ underground. There are many ongoing initiatives on legal frameworks for CCS, but some issues remain to be solved.

The most important political decision to be made is to establish a market for CCS. This will occur when the cost of CCS is reduced to the point where it is more expensive to emit CO₂, than to invest in CCS. The best way to bring down costs is to build large-scale demonstration projects. The first demonstration projects will be expensive, too expensive for companies to take the full cost. Politicians must establish budgets that provide for public funding of the CCS Demonstration projects.

Political status

International agreements on greenhouse gas emission reductions

The Kyoto Protocol was the first international agreement on reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, but when the protocol was written, the potential of CCS as an emission reduction tool was not well known. Therefore, CCS is not part the emission reduction mechanisms in the Kyoto Protocol.

The Kyoto Protocol terminates in 2012, and the successor to Kyoto is currently under discussion. The UN will host international negotiations in Cancun in December 2010 where the aim is to agree upon a post-Kyoto agreement.

The most important task is to agree on ambitious targets for greenhouse gas emission reductions that are binding for all nations. Mechanisms to achieve the targets must also be agreed upon. The highest priority for environmental organizations that favor CCS is to ensure that CCS will be included as a CO₂ emission reduction tool.

Regulations

Politicians all over the world are becoming more aware of the potential CCS represents when it comes to reducing CO₂ emissions. In 2006 Australia was the first country to establish regulations that allow the injection of CO₂ into the ground. The EU followed suit and made a directive for CO₂ storage which was adopted in 2008. Such new legislation is absolute necessary, otherwise the industry will not invest in CCS because old regulations do not permit CO₂ injection.

There are two international regulations for protecting the marine and the subterranean environment; the OSPAR Convention and the London Protocol. When these regulations were designed, CCS was not on the political agenda, and CO₂ storage was not yet conceived when the regulations were agreed upon. As a result they excluded CO₂ injections into the ground. The OSPAR Convention and the London Protocol have now been amended to allow CO₂ injection, although some minor issues still remain.

Political interest in CCS

The political interest in CCS is growing, and politicians all over the world regard CCS as one of the main strategies to reduce CO₂ emissions.

The G8 leaders have even recommended the construction of 20 demonstration projects for CCS worldwide to improve technology, gain experience, and reduce costs related to CCS.

EU politicians have been even more specific. EU has established funding mechanisms to build 10-12 CCS demonstration plants. They have also established criteria to use in selecting the best demonstration projects among a long list of industrial CCS initiatives. The EU plans to have the demonstration projects in operation by 2015.

The newly inaugurated President of the USA, Barack Obama, is also positive to CCS and has stated that he will ensure the building of 5 CCS demonstration projects in the USA.

Although there is an rowing political interest in CCS there as still some politicians that remain skeptic. Their main arguments are concerns about the security of CO2 storage underground as well as concerns that support for CCS could divert public funding away from renewable energy projects.

Challenges

There are many challenges related to CCS, and many technical, juridical and political barriers that must be overcome before CCS can lead to large CO₂ emission reductions. The political challenges are listed below.

Challenge 1: Demonstration of technology

There are no large-scale CCS projects including CO₂ capture, transport and storage. Only a few large projects demonstrating transport and storage are in operation so far. The largest potential for CCS are coal power plants, but at the moment there are no coal power plants with full-scale CCS. The reason is simple; CCS has not yet been demonstrated in full-scale, and the technology is to expensive.

Demonstration of CCS in full-scale could happen soon. After many years with research activities worldwide, scientists and industrial stakeholders agree that CCS is ready to be demonstrated in full-scale. There is common agreement that the next step to further develop CCS is to build large demonstration projects. However, the first large-scale projects are always expensive, and this is also the case for CCS. The industrial stakeholders are therefore asking politicians for public financing for the first large-scale CCS projects.

Read more on technical challenges

Challenge 2: Juridical issues

Industrial stakeholders have also been reluctant to invest in large-scale CCS projects due to the lack of a regulatory framework. Of course there are international regulations that prohibit the dumping of waste below ground, and until recently it has been unclear whether CO₂ should be considered a waste or not. If CO₂ is to be treated as a waste, then CO₂ storage would be illegal. But fortunately, international regulations have been changed recently to allow for CO₂ storage, although some regulatory challenges remain.

Read more on Regulations

Challenge 3: Public awareness

Lack of public awareness about CCS as a CO₂ emission reduction strategy is another important challenge. In general, people tend to be skeptical to concepts that they have never heard of, and because most people have never heard about CCS, the general perception of CCS tends to be negative.

However, once people obtain information about CCS, they tend to become much more positive. It is therefore very important to establish information campaigns to disseminate information about CCS to the public and thereby increase public awareness about CCS and its potential.

Building the first CCS projects will require public funding, and politicians will only ensure public funding if their constituents are generally supportive of CCS. This demonstrates how important it is to establish campaigns to inform the public about CCS. Politicians should work together with industry and NGOs to provide relevant information to the public.

Read more on Public opinion of CCS

Challenge 4: Financial issues

The next step in developing CCS is to build large-scale demonstration projects. As mentioned, this will require public money, and the world leaders must therefore agree on financial mechanisms for the first CCS demonstration projects. This is perhaps the greatest challenge related to further CCS development.

Furthermore, politicians must continue to work on establishing the necessary regulatory framework to get CCS up and running and see it through to completion.

There is also a need for a global agreement on CO₂ emission reduction that includes CCS as an emission reduction tool. The Kyoto Protocol was the first international agreement with emission reduction targets, but the effectiveness of this protocol is weakened because it has not been ratified by all countries in the world. Furthermore, CCS is unfortunately excluded in the emission reduction mechanisms in the Kyoto Protocol.

Hopefully, the international climate negotiations hosted by the UN in Cancun in December 2010 will result in a global agreement signed by all nations, where CCS is part of a strategy to meet ambitious CO₂ emission reduction targets.

The way forward

International agreement on greenhouse gas emission reductions

The most important upcoming political milestone is the international climate negotiations in Cancun in December 2010 hosted by the UN. The world needs an agreement on greenhouse gas emission reductions that includes ambitious emission reduction targets and mechanisms for how to achieve the emission reductions.

The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has recommended that global CO₂ emissions should be reduced by 50 to 85 percent by 2050. It is essential that this emission reduction target is integrated into the climate protocol that world leaders hopefully will agree upon in the UNFCCC negotiations in Cancun in 2010.

The Kyoto protocol has several mechanisms for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, like the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Joint Implementation (JI). But neither of these mechanisms include CCS as an emission reduction tool.

Green organizations in favor of CCS will work hard in 2010 to show politicians and negotiators that CCS needs to be included as a part of the emission reduction mechanisms to be agreed upon in Cancun.

Establishment of a global price for CO₂ emissions

World leaders must establish a global price on CO₂ emissions. Industry will not invest in emission reduction technologies as long as it is cheaper to emit CO₂ into the atmosphere rather than to invest in emission reduction strategies.

The EU has established an internal market for CO2. The system is called the EU Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS). In brief, the EU has established a cap on emissions from the industry and power sector. An allowance gives the companies the right to emit a given volume of CO₂. In the event that a company is able to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, the CO₂ allowance can then be sold on the market.

The EU ETS has its weaknesses, but it is a good start, and it can serve as a starting point for a global market for CO₂ emissions. Ideally, the climate negotiations in Cancun in 2010 should produce an agreement that ensures a global market for CO₂ allowances.

Support for CCS in the demonstration phase

CCS will be a reality when the costs of CCS is less than the costs of emitting CO₂. Today, CCS is far more expensive than buying CO₂ allowances on the EU ETS market. Politicians must therefore face the challenge of bringing the costs of CCS down.

Politicians agree with scientists and experts that the next logical step is to build demonstration projects for CCS. But like all new technologies, the first demonstration projects will be expensive. Industry is not willing to pay the entire bill for CCS demonstration projects. Therefore, public funding is required.

Initiatives on CCS are taking place throughout the world, but so far the industry is reluctant to apply their initiatives to real projects because of the high costs involved. Consequently, it is imperative that world leaders establish mechanisms for public financing to ensure the construction of the planned demonstration projects.

Technology transfer

The EU is planning to build 10 to 12 demonstration projects, and funding mechanisms for the project were established at the end of 2008. Funding for CCS has also been established in Australia and Canada. But it is important that CCS takes place throughout the world, not only in industrialized countries. A great number of power plants and factories with large CO₂ emissions are located in developing countries, and it is just as important to eliminate these emissions as it is to eliminate emissions in the richest part of the world.

Technology transfer from industrialized countries to developing countries is extremely important. CCS technology must be spread throughout the world. The G8 leaders have recommended building 20 CCS demonstration projects worldwide. The politicians must now ensure funding for these projects, and they must also ensure that demonstration projects are built in developing countries. This is paramount to ensure technology transfer of CCS so that CCS technology becomes available worldwide.

National mapping reports for CCS

• Mapping CCS in Portugal Report Final
• Mapping CCS in Romania Report Final
• Mapping CCS in Spain Report Final
• Mapping CCS in Bulgaria Report Final
• Mapping CCS in Czech Republic Report Final
• Mapping CCS in Greece Report Final
• Mapping CCS in Hungary
• Mapping CCS in Italy Report Final
• Mapping CCS in Poland Report Final
• Summary mapping article

See also

• Political opinions on CCS
• Public opinion on CCS
• How to deploy CCS
• Regulations
• Regional politics
• International organizations working with CCS
• CCS demonstration projects
• Funding of CCS
• Technological challenges