Global Carbon Capture and Storage - Status Report 2020
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) separates CO2 emissions at source and stores them geologically. It is important because it can be applied to wide variety of emission sources such as in heavy industry, power, and oil and gas. CCS is an emissions reduction technology critical to meeting global climate targets. Alongside national government commitments, major multinational energy companies have made pledges to achieve carbon neutral outcomes by mid-century. For some this includes scope 3 emissions; those that are the result of the consumption (often combustion) of their products by customers. CCS features in several fiscal packages of the governments, showcasing an increased abatement ambition.
Achieving net-zero emissions around mid-century and containing temperature increases to well below 2°C will require the rapid deployment of all available abatement technologies as well as the early retirement of some emission intensive facilities and the retro-fitting of others with technology like CCS. Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) will also be required at large scale as overshooting carbon budgets is, regrettably, almost assured. According to the IPCC 1.5°C Special Report, somewhere between 350 and 1200 gigatonnes of CO2 will need to be captured and stored this century. This equates to somewhere between 10 and 35 times of our annual global CO2 emissions we currently emit from fossil fuels. Currently, some 40 megatonnes of CO2 are captured and stored annually, equivalent to about 0.1 per cent of our current emissions. Carbon capture must increase at least 100-fold by 2050 to meet the scenarios laid out by the IPCC.
The Global Status of CCS 2020 documents important milestones for CCS over the past 12 months, its status across the world and the key opportunities and challenges it faces. The pipeline of operating and in development CCS facilities around the world is, growing, continuing the upward trajectory. Seventeen new commercial facilities have entered the project pipeline since the last report was published, with about twenty-six currently operating and twenty-one in early stages of development. In every part of the CCS value chain, substantial progress is being made. New, more efficient and lower cost capture technologies across a range of applications are changing the outlook for one of the most significant cost components of the CCS value chain.
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