Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
5/9/2014
Carbon capture and sequestration runs the risk of being “a rich man’s solution” to addressing climate change unless costs are significantly reduced, Statoil President and CEO Helge Lund said this week during an event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Without a global effort to develop less expensive technology, Lund expressed little optimism for the future of CCS. “Carbon capture and storage, potentially, is a very important long-term solution. … My thinking is that the biggest issue— there are many issues—but the biggest issue right now is probably the cost issue. You really need to find a technology that radically reduces the cost of carbon capture; otherwise it will be a rich man’s solution that will not be attainable,” Lund said.
Lund noted a lack of organization and momentum in global efforts to address climate change, stating, “Globally, the big problem of today is that there’s too much CO2 and, actually, too little politics. While waiting for effective global measures, local alternatives have to be implemented.” Among his suggested local alternatives, Lund stressed the incentivizing of practices to aid in the effort to halt climate change. Incentivizing such practices, Lund said, would balance the need for energy from fossil fuels with the goal of emitting less CO2. Lund noted that even in the low-carbon future laid out by the International Energy Agency’s two degree scenario, oil and natural gas remain prevalent, with natural gas increasing a great deal to phase out coal. “Even in a low-carbon society, the world needs our products,” he said.
Seeing too little progress on the global front, and acknowledging vast differences in needs and resources across the country, Lund suggested a path forward for the U.S. which would apply common large scale best practices relevant across the country while still allowing for regional or state specific regulations. “In our view, a number of states have put in place good and well thought-out regulations for unconventional resource development and we believe that regulation should reflect and cater too local conditions,” Lund said, adding, “Population density and issues related to water availability will tend to differ, for instance, between Texas and Pennsylvania. Having said that, we can also see that there are areas in which some common best practices can be applied. We truly believe in the industry working with governments, with society and with the scientific community to ensure these resources are developed in a responsible and sustainable way.”
