Is Decarbonisation Technology the Key to Beating Climate Change?

Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, the chief climate change advisor to the Pope, has suggested that employing renewable energy sources alone will not be enough to avoid a 2°C hike in global temperatures. Instead, the head of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research has called upon carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies to play a part in reducing the amount of carbon in our atmosphere as well.

A Varied Approach

The Pope’s chief advisor believes that no single approach will be effective enough on its own. Of course, it is of vital importance that we do not continue to emit more carbon into the atmosphere on the vast scales that we have been doing so for the last few centuries (and exponentially over the last few decades), but also we may need to extract some of the carbon already present.  

“One thing is clear is that in order to even aspire to 1.5C you need not only rapid decarbonisation of the global economy by the middle of century, but you probably have to remove some carbon from the atmosphere, in particular afforestation on degraded lands, which is a win/win option anyway,” explained Schellnhuber.

An Old Technology with Problems of its Own

CCS technology has been in use for decades but has not been applied on such a large-scale as to address a problem like climate change. However, leading scientists on the topic have been pushing for an increase in CCS technology use for many years. It’s hoped that with the signing of the COP21 climate change agreement in Paris late last year, the industry will enjoy something of a growth spurt due to the wording in the documentation.

However, the technique is far from the finished article. It is all but untested on such a large scale, meaning that it could have dire side effects in the way that it interacts with or produces other greenhouse gases (GHGs) and potentially harmful contaminants. In order to avoid such side effects, it’s important to develop the technology further – for example, through the use of FTIR gas analysers, which support CCS via assessing gas composition in test areas.

Another concern about CCS is its cost. In November, the Conservative government reneged on its promise to capture emissions from fossil fuel plants by scrapping its £1bn CCS investment agreement. Meanwhile, similar attempts to capture emissions from coal-fired plants in the US have run into similar logistical and budget problems.

Investment and Commitment are Needed

The government’s U-turn on their CCS scheme is particularly disappointing given the timing of the announcement – just days before the Paris summit and a mere six months before the four-year competition to secure the £1bn grant was due to expire.

Instead of thinking short-term and looking to stabilise the economy at the expense of the environment, the British government – and governments around the world – should be pouring all of their efforts into combating the potentially devastating effects of climate change. Sadly, despite the agreement signed in Paris, such a pressing issue doesn’t seem to be a priority for many in power.