International

An early tally of money earned from the gradual sale of 200 million CO2 credits on the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme indicates that the European Investment Bank has made €1.6 billion ($2 billion) for carbon capture and storage and innovative renewables projects in the region.

A handful of post-combustion carbon capture technology providers—including Siemens and Hitachi—are currently vying for a future slot at Norway’s massive carbon capture test facility. 

While the number of planned carbon capture and storage projects in various stages of development globally has largely stagnated over the last year, China’s role in the field has been notably on the rise, the Global CCS Institute said in its most recent status report released this week. 

The Global CCS Institute this week underscored the role that enhanced oil recovery has played in spearheading much of the recent development of carbon capture and storage projects in North America, China and the Middle East in its annual status report of the industry released this week. 

The future of carbon capture and storage is “directly linked” to the development and deployment of the technology in China, and U.S. companies should look to develop partnerships there, a former Republican chairman of the House Science Committee said here this week. 

Some government funding for carbon capture and storage projects appears to be in question as top U.K. ministers met this week to discuss a long-term energy policy, according to media reports. 

Australia’s energy minister this week confirmed that the world’s largest planned carbon capture and storage project is on track to begin CO2 injection in western Australia beginning in 2015.

The Global CCS Institute is restructuring with an eye toward transitioning away from its beginnings as an entity primarily funded by the Australian government to a financially independent organization, according to Institute officials. 

The U.K.’s energy ministry said Oct. 30 that four demonstration projects have made the short list for its carbon capture and storage competition and that it will further narrow down the field early next year.

The future of 2Co Energy’s Don Valley carbon capture and storage project remains uncertain after the U.K. energy ministry said this week that it would not financially back the venture in its own demonstration contest or a similar competition being held by the European Union. 

Carbon capture and storage projects in Poland and the Netherlands now have a better shot at European Union funding after the U.K. government said this week that it would not back its top project in the EU competition, but some experts said they still expect at least one British project to get money from the scheme. 

Natural gas is often seen as the low cost, low emissions alternative to coal in the power generation sector, but if governments are serious about meeting emissions reduction targets they must install carbon capture and storage on those facilities, according to an international group of environmental NGOs. 

Staying at or beneath the global warming limit set by nations in 2009 appears “highly unrealistic” given the current pace of global carbon intensity reductions, according to a study released earlier this week. 

Alstom and Siemens announced this week that they will both be completing concept studies for their respective post-combustion CO2 capture technologies as part of the vetting process for Norway’s large-scale carbon capture and storage project planned for Mongstad. 

Coal will continue to remain the backbone of the world’s electricity system over the next several decades but renewables will close in as the power source of choice by 2035, according to the International Energy Agency. 

The Canadian Standards Association and IPAC-CO2 Research Inc. this week jointly released what they say is the first consensus standard for the geologic storage of CO2 in the U.S. and Canada. 

Several prominent U.K. politicians questioned the government’s commitment to carbon capture and storage this week after reports surfaced over the weekend that the European Commission would not fund any British projects in its CCS competition. 

The executive arm of the European Union said last week that it is opening two in-depth inquiries examining Italian aid to a planned coal plant in Sardinia with a carbon capture and storage demonstration component, as well as state funding given to the operator of a nearby coal mine. 

The latest round of United Nations climate change negotiations kicked off Monday in Doha, Qatar to relatively modest expectations compared to recent years. 

Global climate change could increase fivefold over the next decade if worldwide pledges to reduce carbon dioxide emissions are not met, according to a recent report from the World Bank. 

The International Energy Agency’s top economist said this week that the outlook for carbon capture and storage technology “does not look very bright” given recent trends in the energy industry. 

An enhanced oil recovery project in the Canadian province of Alberta has just been given the green light to begin the first phase of construction. 

Hopes that Europe would become a global leader in the demonstration and deployment of carbon capture and storage technology have effectively been “dashed,” a key U.K. politician said late this week. 

The head of the U.K.’s Department of Energy and Climate Change introduced a measure in Parliament late last week that would provide long-term operational support to the developers of carbon capture and storage projects. 

With seven years of hard-fought negotiations behind them, carbon capture and storage advocates came to the Conference of the Parties meeting in Doha, Qatar last week with the relatively simple task of smoothing out two details related to the technology’s recent inclusion into an international carbon offsetting scheme. 

Negotiators from nearly 200 nations scrambled to finalize some sort of text during the final hours of the Conference of Parties’ climate change summit in Doha, Qatar, as diplomats aimed to find something to show for two weeks of largely gridlocked negotiations. 

Delegates concluded more than two weeks of United Nations-sponsored climate negotiations in Doha, Qatar Saturday with modest steps forward that many environmental advocates said were not substantial enough to make a dent in fighting climate change. 

Developers of Australia’s first oxyfuel combustion capture pilot started demonstration work this weekend on a 30 MW retrofit project located in Queensland on the country’s east coast. 

Carbon capture and storage proponents in Europe fear the region is slipping behind in the deployment of the technology after the European Commission confirmed this week that no CCS projects are being funded under the first round of its clean energy competition. 

The International Energy Agency kicked off 2013 with a renewed call for the development and deployment of carbon capture and storage worldwide and promised to make the issue a priority in the coming year.