Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is being rabidly pursued by any number of mining companies and governments – especially here in Australia where we love digging things up and sending them overseas. Now a new report from the UK suggests that CSS could be viable in the future if long-term research is funded.

BBC News – Carbon capture ‘viable with long-term support’

Capturing and burying the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from power stations is viable – but long-term government support will be needed, a report says. Specialists in technology and economics spent two years researching the issue for the UK Energy Research Council. The government recently announced a £1bn fund to help carbon capture and storage (CCS) develop; but the report says wider support is needed. CCS is widely seen as an important part of a low-carbon electricity system. “CCS is seen as the key to many scenarios of how to mitigate climate change, whether that’s the UK meeting its targets on cutting emissions or global targets that keep warming below 2C,” said the report’s lead author Dr Jim Watson, director of the energy research group at Sussex University. (Richard Black, Environment correspondent, BBC News 2012).

Related articles

• Carbon capture and storage — new research from UKERC shows tough road ahead to realize potential (eurekalert.org)
• China leading global efforts on clean coal (scidev.net)
• Is the UK right to invest in carbon capture technology? | Leo Hickman (guardian.co.uk)

I just read a great new post only a month old called “Learning to Live With Climate Change Will Not Be Enough“. Written by David Orr (Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics at Oberlin College), the introduction says “A leading environmentalist explains why drastically reducing carbon dioxide emissions now will be easier, cheaper, and more ethical than dealing with runaway climate destabilization later.”

Following are two excerpts that I liked:

“But at some point there are limits to what can be done and the places in which such measures can be effective. With predicted changes in temperature, rainfall, and sea level rise, it is unlikely that we can “promote ecosystem resiliency” or adapt to such changes with “no regrets,” as some have suggested. On the contrary, ecological resilience and biological diversity will almost surely decline as climatic changes now underway accelerate, and going forward we will surely have a great many regrets — chiefly of the “why did we not do more to stop it earlier” sort.”

And my favourite:

“The effects of climatic destabilization, in other words, will be global, pervasive, permanent, and steadily — or rapidly — worsening. Given the roughly 30-year lag between what comes out of our tail pipes and smokestacks, the climate change-driven weather effects we now see are being caused by emissions that occurred in the late 1970s. What is in store 30 years ahead when the forcing effects of our present 387 parts per million of CO2 are manifest? Or further out when, say, the warming and acidifying effects of 450 parts per million of CO2 — or higher — on the oceans have significantly diminished their capacities to absorb carbon? No one knows for certain, but trends in predictive climate science suggest that they will be much worse than once thought.”

It was also interesting to read some of the comments (both positive and negative). The comment that I found most interesting was:

“Mr. Orr is correct that most species and most societies will not successfully adapt to this type of rapid change — but we can and must prepare for them. Thus, we must change our thinking and focus from ‘adaptation’ to ‘preparation’ — just as we prepare for other disasters we must prepare for climate change. This includes building resistance and resiliency and much much more.

Preparation is a different paradigm from adaptation, and our experience is that focusing on preparation builds support for mitigation (while the focus on adaptation reduces support). For example, my program at the UO has for the past two years been engaging local communities in climate preparation. We have consistently found that once people are involved in actions to prepare for the likely local impacts of climate change they become much more focused on taking action to prevent it from growing worse — that is mitigation.”

It was by Bob Doppelt. He is the author of a recently-published book called “The Power of Sustainable Thinking: How to Create a Positive Future for the Climate, the Planet, Your Organization and Your Life“.  If you want to read more about about his work then try:

1. Overcoming the Seven Sustainability Blunders

2. The Climate Leadership Initiative at U Oregon (definitely worth a look).

3. Some of his newspaper columns about climate change.