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UN May Approve Carbon Capture and Storage for Offset Projects
2010-12-04 18:45:43.22 GMT
By Alex Morales
Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- United Nations climate envoys are set
to approve carbon capture and storage projects in the developing
world as offsets for companies in industrial nations that are
striving to meet their greenhouse-gas emissions targets.
Draft conclusions by delegates give two options for
inclusion of the projects in the UN's CDM, or Clean Development
Mechanism, the world's second-biggest carbon market, worth $2.7
billion last year. Both options would allow the technology to be
deployed, providing concerns about leakage, legal liability,
environmental effects and measurement are met.
Carbon capture and storage, or CCS, is an experimental
technology that has yet to be proven. It would siphon off carbon
dioxide emissions from power plants and factories and pump the
gas underground for permanent storage. CO2 emissions are blamed
for damaging the atmosphere. Decisions about whether to include
the technology in the CDM have been delayed for at least two
years because of questions about whether CCS will work and
whether it's suitable for developing countries.
"The fossil-fuel industry has plenty of money of its
own," the environmental group Greenpeace said in an e-mailed
statement. "It doesn't need to steal money meant to get
renewable energy to the poorest countries, which is exactly what
promoting CCS into the CDM would not only allow, but actively
sponsor."
Proponents of the technology, including Norway, the U.K.
and Saudi Arabia, have said it will allow countries to keep
using fossil fuel while ensuring greenhouse gases aren't spewed
into the atmosphere, where they trap heat and feed global
warming.
The draft conclusions are still subject to debate and must
be approved by a closing meeting of delegates at UN climate
talks in Cancun, Mexico on Dec. 10.
For Related News and Information:
Climate-change news: NI CLIMATE <GO>
Top environment stories: GREEN <GO>
Most-read environmental news: MNI ENV <GO>
Renewable Energy Stories: NI ALTNRG <GO>
--Editors: Reed Landberg, Mark Rohner
To contact the reporter on this story:
Alex Morales in Cancun at +44-20-7330-7718 or
amorales2@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at +44-20-7330-7862 or landberg@bloomberg.net.
