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Carbon capture is ‘head in the ground’ stuff
The debate about climate change is now over, and the tactics of the coal industry and their supporters have shifted accordingly. Instead of denying that climate change is happening, they are now claiming that coal burning can continue anyway because the greenhouse pollution that they produce can simply be buried underground. Yet this process, known as carbon capture and storage (CCS) or geo-sequestration, is an unproven, expensive technology that will not be ready in time to stop dangerous climate change, and will probably not be commercially viable for Hunter Valley power plants.
The Government is misleading the people of the Hunter to believe that the coal industry will be saved by CCS . This is, at best, wishful thinking by well-intentioned folk conscious of coal’s important role in Australia’s economy and the challenges of Australia transitioning from coal to clean energy alternatives. Sadly, given public knowledge about CCS, it is more likely a cynical attempt to prop up the already heavily subsidised fossil fuel industry that runs the government’s energy policy.
Government prioritisation of CCS over renewable energy research will increase the coal industries stranglehold over the energy research priorities of the CSRO ad universities, and stall critical and urgent research into real clean energy solutions and transitios strategies.
A new report by the Inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world’s leading scientific body on climate change, showed the many limitations with CCS. Firstly, the IPCC report estimates that by 2050 only about 30-60% of emissions from electricity generation will be technically suitable for capture. And even for the power stations that are suitable, CCS can at best only sequester 80-90% of their emissions.
As a result, if the projected increases in power plant construction in the next 50-100 years are borne out then even widespread use of CCS would see emissions from the global electricity sector continue to climb, instead of being reduced, as is needed to avoid runaway climate change. The Australian-based Transition Institute has estimated that if fossil fuels with CCS were used to meet energy needs in the Asia Pacific by 2050, and 85% of all emissions were captured, emissions would still rise by over 70%.
The recent ABARE paper prepared for the first meeting of the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (AP6) bears this out. Even assuming an implausibly rapid and comprehensive uptake of CCS starting in 2015, the ABARE report estimates global emissions will increase 100% by 2050.
CCS promoters claim that CCS will be ready within 10 years. It may be ready theoretically, but will it be used? The IPCC estimates that the majority of CCS deployment will only take place in the second half of this century, and thinks that by 2020 CCS may only be capturing 9-12% of global CO2 emissions, and by 2050 as little as 21%. This is too little too late, and will guarantee runaway climate change that will seriously impact all Australians, including those living in the Hunter valley.
What is more, without an agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that puts a price on carbon emissions there will be no uptake of CCS at all. It’s common sense. A CCS power plant will be more expensive that a power plant without CCS. Why would a utility buy the more expensive plant if it doesn’t need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions? As the IPCC says “… in the absence of measures for limiting CO2 emissions, there are only small, niche opportunities for CCS technologies….”. Yet the coal industry itself has been vociferous in opposing limits on greenhouse gas emissions, exposing the fact that their rhetoric on CCS is simply a short-term attempt to pretend that they are serious about climate change and stave off real action to develop clean energy technologies.
Lastly, reports have shown that there are no suitable sites for sequestration within 500kms of the coal-fired power stations in the Hunter Valley, making it likely that new power stations fitted with CCS will be commercially infeasible at the existing locations. Even if Australia builds power plants with CCS in the future, they are unlikely to be built in the Hunter.
Ultimately, the Hunter needs to plan for a future beyond coal, not be distracted by illusions like ‘clean’ coal and CCS. CCS is simply an attempt by the coal industry to head off real action on climate change, hijack precious clean energy research funds that should be used for real energy solutions, and lull coal communities into a false sense of security.
For more info contact Geoff Evans on climate@mpi.org.au
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Created: 24 Feb 2006 | Last updated: 24 Feb 2006
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