Governments and industry will have to step up the pace if they want to meet the declared goal of large-scale deployment of carbon capture and sequestration for coal-fired power plants by 2020, the International Energy Agency said in a new report.
Governments have made financial commitments of some $26 billion that will enable them to launch between 19 and 43 large-scale demonstration projects by 2020. But it will be a challenge to meet the initial goal of launching 20 such projects by the end of this year, the IEA said in a report to be presented to G8 leaders at their summit later this month.
The goals were set at the G8 summit in 2008. âThe growing number of projects under development around the world demonstrates that increased action is being taken,â said Nick Otter, chief executive officer of the Global CCS Institute, a co-author of the report. âRapid progress towards operation of those projects is now required if CCS is to be on-track for broad deployment by 2020.â
CCS â designed to reduce carbon emissions from coal by capturing the carbon dioxide and burying it â is meant to complement renewable energy technologies in the fight against global warming.
The Global CCS Institute recently identified 80 large-scale integrated CCS projects at various stages of development around the world. Only five of these are in operation at present, and one new project has been launched and is proceeding to construction. Notable efforts can be found in the United States, Canada, Australia and the European Union, particularly the United Kingdom, the report said. Projects are also under development in China and the Middle East.
The report noted that according to the October 2009 IEA CCS Technology Roadmap, about a hundred CCS projects will be required globally by 2020, roughly half of them in developing countries, to achieve emission reduction goals.
âThe report stresses that continued political leadership is essential at both national and international levels,â IEA Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka said in a statement. âReaching the G8 goal of broad deployment of CCS by 2020 is achievable, but will be challenging.â
By. Darrell Delamaide