Carbon capture and storage technology is essential to addressing climate change, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa said last week during a speech at the 2016 Zero Emission Conference in Oslo, Norway. Espinosa urged attendees to advance research and development of the technology. “You can continue to research and work on solutions like carbon capture and storage that can align the fossil fuel infrastructure we cannot avoid with the zero-emission future we absolutely need,” she said.
Norway is home to the Technology Center Mongstad, the world’s largest carbon capture technology test facility. The nation also announced last month its intention to launch studies into potential full-scale CCS demonstration projects. Gassnova, the Norwegian state enterprise for CCS, is working on concept studies with an option for front-end engineering and design (FEED) for up to three proposed capture projects.
Espinosa applauded Norway for its leadership role in global climate change efforts, including being the first industrialized nation to ratify the Paris Agreement on climate change. “The government here plans to reduce emissions by 40 percent by pointing energy, transportation, agriculture, and industry at low-emission models. The intention is to accomplish this by 2030, which is also the year Norway plans to be carbon-neutral. This is at least 20 years sooner than the long-term goal in the Paris Agreement to be climate neutral in the second half of the century,” she noted.