A new world first study released by environmental think-tank The Climate Institute today has strongly supported carbon capture technologies.
The study, which follows the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) low-carbon technology report, says technologies that remove heat trapping carbon pollution from the atmosphere are now central to a lower risk strategy to avoid highly dangerous climate change.
“Physics tells us that if we are to avoid very dangerous global warming of 2.0°C or more above pre-industrial levels, Australia and other countries need not only zero carbon technologies like solar and wind but also to go further, and employ carbon removal technologies,” said John Connor, CEO of The Climate Institute.
Moving Below Zero: Understanding Bio-energy with Carbon Capture & Storage includes a world first study examining the role of carbon removal technologies in national climate policy scenarios.
Carried out by leading economics firm Jacobs SKM, the modelling finds that bio-energy with carbon capture and storage, or bio-CCS using food wastes, sustainable forest biomass, or crop residues, has the potential to contribute significantly to climate change efforts in Australia.
Mr Connor said: “We examined a range of carbon removal options including afforestation, bio-char and bio-CCS.”
“Bio-CCS is potentially the most climate safe technology as it involves removing carbon from the air and storing it in the earth over geological timescales.
“Globally it could remove a substantial amount of carbon pollution from the air, up to 10 billion tonnes of pollution a year in 2050, according to the International Energy Agency,” Mr Connor added.
While global agents like the IEA and the IPCC are urging the use of carbon removal and include the technologies in their modelling, this is not the case on national level. Using Australia as a case study, Jacobs SKM economic modelling concluded that:
- Bio-CCS could play a significant role in Australia, with a capacity to remove and displace up to 65 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent (MtCO2-e) annually by 2050. That is around 1.5 times current emissions from all cars in Australia.
Early and strong action on climate is needed, with renewables and other low-carbon technologies being critical from today. For example, energy efficiency and other renewable energy sources like wind and solar are required to reduce electricity emissions by 50 per cent, from around 200 Mt CO2-e today to 100 Mt CO2-e in 2030 across all scenarios.- Without bio-CCS and other carbon removal technologies, Australia and other nations will face difficult trade-offs: accept more dangerous levels of climate change, pay more for emission reductions, and/or purchase more and more emission reductions from other countries. The report finds that failure to adopt carbon removal technologies could increase climate action costs by up to $60 billion to 2050.
“Carbon removal technologies are hugely important but they have to be employed correctly,” Mr Connor said.
“If bio-energy is not sourced from sustainable sources and consider energy used at all stages of the process, it can lead to other social and environmental impacts and undermine the viability of, and public confidence in, the technology.”
“With carbon dioxide levels now 40 per cent above pre-industrial levels, it is critical that we begin the conversation now about how to sustainably integrate carbon removal technologies into national climate policies with long term decarbonisation signals and deployment incentives,” concluded Mr Connor.
The full report and related factsheets and social media materials can be found at www.climateinstitute.org.au
