The hurdles to carbon capture are surmountable

The thrust of Sam Arie’s op-ed “It is probably too late to stop dangerous global warming” (July 18) is that the current policy pathway — maximising the development of renewable electricity — is unlikely to get us to net zero by 2050.

I think I would agree with this, and so would the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change modellers who last year warned that we were off-track to meet climate goals.

But the solution isn’t to proceed full throttle with current policies while at the same time preparing for failure. The solution is to think up new ideas, and new policies to go alongside renewable electricity — the most urgent of which concerns carbon capture and storage.

CCS hasn’t taken off in Europe, but not because it is a technological moon shot, akin to mirrors in the sky. It has been around for decades and there are many functioning projects around the world. It hasn’t taken off because it has too few friends yet. Broadly speaking, some policymakers have tended not to like it because it is a big, upfront commitment. Non-governmental organisations have been wary of it because, under some policy proposals, it could compete with renewables for public support. And oil and gas companies are waiting for a business case for CCS, which carbon certificates do not yet provide.

These hurdles are not insurmountable with the right policy framework — ideally one in which the cost of disposals are internalised in the cost of the fossil fuels themselves, in the manner of a carbon tax. We recently held a brainstorming event on this as part of London Climate Week, and I see renewed interest from companies, policymakers and NGOs in getting CCS right, also because it is a key lever to scale up hydrogen. And while CCS may not be a particularly likable beast, I think we will find that we like it a lot more than 2C of global warming, no matter what we do to adapt.

Marco Alverà
Chief Executive,
Snam,
San Donato Milanese, Italy