Tag: carbon capture and storage

Two weeks after ArcelorMittal pulled out from the Ulcos low-emission steelmaking project in France, EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said new EU funding would be available for carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects within 12 months.

Dumping iron into the sea can bury carbon dioxide for centuries, potentially helping reduce the impact of climate change, according to a major new study. The work shows for the first time that much of the algae that blooms when iron filings are added dies and falls into the deep ocean.

Experimental technology to capture, store and bury carbon emissions in geological formations is in line to receive a payout of as much as €1.37 billion from the EU’s energy infrastructure package, EurActiv has learned. 

The EU and Canada should work together to bring controversial carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology onto the global marketplace more quickly, according to the director of Canada’s flagship CAN$2 billion (€1.4bn) CCS programme.

Delegates in Cancún are braced for a final vote to approve the funding of controversial carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology under the UN's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

The European Commission adopted a proposal on Wednesday (3 November) to give four billion euros of funding to cutting-edge climate technologies such as renewable energies and carbon capture and storage (CCS).

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects will likely be first to benefit from funding out of the EU emissions trading scheme (EU ETS), with support for renewables to follow later, a draft European Commission proposal suggests.

With nearly 200 nations having begun climate talks in Copenhagen, a genuine global regulatory framework is required to create a level playing field for businesses seeking to slash their emissions and move towards a low-carbon future, Giuseppe Montesano, head of environmental policy at Italian power company Enel, told EurActiv in an interview.

Leaders from China and Europe will sign a new Science and Technology Agreement at next week's summit in Nanjing, where progress is also likely on a major near-zero emissions coal project.

The world will need to set up 100 CO2 capture and underground storage projects by 2020 to ensure that the fight against climate change remains affordable, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said yesterday (13 October).

European Union funding to support new technology to trap and bury climate-warming gases could be wasted as member states fight for the biggest cut, an EU lawmaker warned on Thursday (9 July).

Germany's grand coalition government has reportedly agreed to a scaled-down draft law on carbon dioxide storage after conservatives objected to some of the measures.

Ahead of a two-day meeting of climate ministers from 16 major world economies hosted by US President Barack Obama in Washington, UK Energy Minister Ed Miliband urged world leaders to acknowledge that coal would remain part of the world's energy mix.

The European Commission yesterday (28 January) proposed to reallocate five billion euro of unspent EU money, mostly to support clean coal projects, offshore wind farms and the deployment of broadband Internet connections in rural areas.

A deal on financing coal power plants equipped with technology to capture and store CO2 emissions deep underground edged closer today (12 December) after the European Council decided to give substantial backing to the technology.

Calls for CO2 capture and storage technology to be developed, mandated by a future emissions performance standard for power plants, are growing louder. But most EU countries have not yet signalled their support.

MEPs have voted in support of a multi-billion euro fund to drive the construction of CO2 capture and storage demonstration plants. Coal-dependent China is said to be waiting for Europe to move on the issue, but EU governments are yet to formally back the financing plan.

By 2030, the cost of capturing and storing carbon dioxide emissions from heavy-polluting coal power plants could be reduced to levels where it can compete with other low-carbon technologies, including renewable energies, according to a new study by McKinsey & Company, a business consulting firm.

Carbon sequestration, although "not a silver bullet", is an essential bridging technology that needs to be deployed fast if Europe and the rest of the world are serious about tackling climate change, argues Paal Frisvold, head of the Brussels office of the Bellona Foundation, a Norwegian environmental NGO.

EU environment ministers will today (3 July) be urged to accelerate the development of carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstration plants during a two-day informal Council meeting of EU energy and environment ministers, the first of its kind under the French EU Presidency.

With hundreds of new coal-fired power plants planned within and outside Europe in the coming decades, pressure is growing on the EU to commercialise and export carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies to prevent a massive rise in global CO2 emissions. But difficult financing issues remain unresolved.  

UK Liberal MEP Chris Davies wants all existing fossil fuel power plants to be retrofitted with CO2 capture and storage technology by 2025, and is calling for a moratorium on new plant constructions after 2015 unless the facilities are able to prevent 90% of their CO2 emissions from entering the atmosphere.

The EU should adopt a strict timeline with mandatory requirements to ensure that all new coal-fired power plants are capturing and storing the CO2 they emit by 2030, says UK Liberal MEP Chris Davies. He spoke to EurActiv in an interview.

Shell is pushing for the use of EU taxpayers' money to finance expensive carbon capture and storage technologies as part of efforts to avoid run-away CO2 emissions linked to sky-rocketing global energy demand. Jeremy Bentham, Shell Vice President, and Chief Economist Steven Fries spoke to EurActiv following the presentation of the company's 2008 Energy Scenarios.