Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
5/8/2015
PITTSBURGH, Pa.— Proponents of carbon capture, utilization and storage remain cautiously optimistic that the technology will be treated fairly in the new climate agreement hoped to be struck during the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) 21st Conference of the Parties (COP 21) to be held in Paris this year, according to Barry Worthington, Executive Director of the U.S. Energy Association. “We have better confidence now that whatever comes out of Paris, whatever the instrument is going to be, that it will be something that will be acceptable and will be supportive of carbon capture and storage and supportive of [enhanced oil recovery],” Worthington said here last week at the 14th Annual Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage Conference.
Worthington outlined several steps that have been taken by CCS advocates to ensure that CCS and EOR are included as mitigation options in the agreement. CCS supporters have been able to express the importance of CCS and CCUS in climate mitigation to the UNFCCC by working through a different U.N. organization, the Economic Commission for Europe Committee on Sustainable Energy (UNECE). The UNECE, after meeting with a group of CCS supporters, formally submitted recommendations to the UNFCCC that call for support of the technology in the Paris agreement.
Key among the recommendations, Worthington said, is that EOR be counted as carbon storage. This is of particular importance in North America where the use of CO2 for EOR remains one of the most promising paths to developing a business case for carbon capture. “We were very interested in trying to get UNECE to take a focus on this and we were surprised that the framework convention on climate change staff were actually very interested in UNECE taking this approach and essentially serving almost as advisor as to how CCS should be treated,” Worthington said, noting the support of EOR in the UNECE recommendations.
Policy Parity Needed
Another potential problem the CCS supporters were able to address with the UNECE was the possibility that CCS would not be treated equally to other low- or no-carbon technologies, such as renewable energy, Worthington said, noting that the battle for policy parity was also fought in the development of the Kyoto Protocol. “We stress that whatever the post-Kyoto version of the clean development mechanism might be, it’s critically important that CCS be included in that in the beginning and whatever emission credits you get for deploying wind, for deploying solar, for energy efficiency; carbon capture and storage needs to be treated identically. Whatever subsidies, whatever tax credits, whatever emissions credits solar and wind and other renewables get, that same parity ought to be provided to carbon capture and storage,” he said.
IPCC Report Sets Stage for CCS Going into Paris
Shortly before the 20th Conference of the Parties (COP 20) of the UNFCCC, held in Lima in December 2014, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its 5th Assessment Synthesis Report, which made clear the importance of CCS’s role in mitigating climate change. The IPCC report, as well as a joint climate announcement by President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping, helped to garner support for CCS and motivation for the parties to come to an agreement, Tim Dixon, Manager of Technical Programs, CCS and Regulatory Affairs with the International Energy Association Greenhouse Gas Program said at last week’s conference. “In the end I think this is a very powerful message from the IPCC 5th assessment report that out of all the low carbon energy technologies, CCS and CCUS is really the most important that’s not excluded,” Dixon said. “This was very useful going into the COP meeting. Also very useful … was this agreement [by] President Obama and President Xi Jinping.”
