Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
11/20/2015
The European Union stands to lose more than 1 trillion euros if carbon capture and storage is not available as the region works to meet its carbon dioxide reduction targets for power and industry, the Zero Emissions Platform said in a report issued late last week. “When CCS is not part of the portfolio, the cost of reaching the EU’s CO2 reduction target for power increases by at least €1.2 trillion. The EU’s target for industry, on the other hand, is not achievable – in any scenario,” according to the report.
The EU has set the goal of reducing CO2 emissions from power and energy-intensive industries by 80-95 percent by 2050. Certain high-emitting industries, such as cement and steel production, will likely have to depend on CCS to reduce emissions. In the power sector, emissions can be reduced by switching fuels or switching to renewable generation, but this is not the case in high-emitting industries.
The report suggests that CCS will first be deployed in the energy sector, eventually being transitioned to the industrial sector. Delaying the use of CCS in the energy sector will increase the cost of meeting CO2 reduction targets as time goes on and may eventually reach a breaking point after which deployment of the technology is no longer likely, the report says.
“When the model delays CCS deployment to 2035, this costs power and industry sectors an extra 200 b€ and society an extra 100 b€ in order to reach EU CO2 reduction targets of 80-95% by 2050. This is mainly due to the extra deployment of renewables needed to compensate for the delay in CCS for power; all other variants lead to even larger extra costs,” the report explains. “Realistically speaking, however, such a delay would likely result in CCS not being deployed at all.”
If the time comes at which CCS is no longer on the table, the EU will not be able to reduce its industrial CO2 emissions to the level desired, according to the Zero Emissions Platform, a coalition of stakeholders that advises the European Commission on CCS technologies.
To avoid these additional costs and consequences, the EU must support the deployment of CCS now, the report asserts: “Investment in CO2 transport and storage infrastructure must start now in order to deploy CCS widely from 2025 – a delay of even 10 years will cost power and industry an extra €200 billion to reach these EU targets.”
