The capture and storage of carbon dioxide underground are among the most significant components of the IPCC’s (the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) reports. IPCC plans to maintain global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) would be utilized alongside energy efficiency, renewable energy, and electrification of the transportation sector.
Now, new research from Imperial College London shows that no more than 2,700 Gigatonnes of carbon dioxide would be enough to meet the IPCC’s global warming targets. Here are all the details you should know.
The CCS is on Track to Meet a Few of the IPCC’s Targets
CCS includes trapping carbon dioxide at its emission origin, such as fossil-fuel power stations, and storing it underground to keep it away from the atmosphere. The new research discovered that the current pace of growth in CCS’s established capacity is ready to meet some of the objectives mentioned in IPCC reports.
For the first time, the research has indicated that the maximum storage level required is approximately 2,700 Gigatonnes, but that this amount will increase if CCS deployment is postponed. The researchers discovered such a thing using lots of information. They combined data on the last two decades of increase in CCS, models commonly utilized to track the depletion of natural resources, and data on historical growth rates in energy infrastructure. The results showed that there had been an 8.6 % increase in CCS capacity over the last 20 years.
“We found that even the most ambitious scenarios are unlikely to need more than 2,700 Gigatonnes of carbon dioxide storage resource globally, much less than the 10,000 Gigatonnes of storage resource that leading reports suggest is possible,” detailed Dr. Christopher Zahasky, the one who led the research.
Researchers explained that the level at which carbon dioxide is stored is significant in its success in climate change reduction. The quicker the carbon dioxide is deposited, the less total subsurface storage resource is required to reach storage objectives. So, starting to store sooner and faster than current deployment might be needed to support governments to achieve the most daring climate change reduction scenarios found by the IPCC.
