Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
2/13/2015
The full-scale development of carbon capture and storage technology could be hindered by the perception that the technology is only intended to allow for the extended use of fossil fuels, a group of representatives from various non-governmental organization said last week during the Americas Forum hosted by the Global CCS Institute. “I think a lot of those in the environmental community are opposed to any new fossil fuel extraction and that is difficult and that’s a point of view that we have challenged,” said Patrick Falwell, Solutions Fellow with the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES). “However, we recognize that we’re getting a significant percentage of our energy from fossil fuel sources today and all expectations are that we will in the future.”
Duncan Kenyon, Program Director for Unconventional Oil and Gas with Pembina and the Environmental NGO Network on CCS said CCS technology needs to be discussed in the broader context of overall climate mitigation. “When we talk about CCS or CCUS, if you simply point to CCS as a [single goal] it makes you very vulnerable to the type of criticism that comes out of other NGOs and usually it’s ‘Well, that’s just perpetuating fossil fuels,’ … or ‘Why did you not spend that money on a wind farm?’” Kenyon said. “We’re doing this because we have to address the fact that we need to continue to use fossil fuels. It’s a big part of our economy and if we don’t put something in to capture those emissions from fossil fuels, then we can put in all the wind farms and solar panels in the world and we’ll never get ahead.”
CCS Not Only for Coal
Falwell also said that it’s important to note that CCS is not a coal-exclusive technology. “It’s also applicable to a number of industrial processes, some of which have no other means of reducing their carbon footprint,” Falwell said. “There are many opportunities and when you see those opportunities it’s something that’s positive.”
