Carbon capture and storage has become a key part of Canada’s oil and gas sector’s decarbonization goals, but a new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) warns against banking on the technology as the planet continues to warm.
In a report released Thursday, the Paris-based IEA said oil and gas companies must start “abandoning the illusion” that “implausible” amounts of carbon capture are the solution to the global climate crisis.
Carbon capture and storage refers to the use of technologies to sequester harmful greenhouse gas emissions from industrial processes and store them safely underground.
In Canada, carbon capture and storage has become a pillar of the oil and gas sector’s decarbonization goals.
Oil sands companies, for example, have banded together to propose a $16.5 billion carbon capture and storage project in northern Alberta that they say would help them reduce to zero production-related emissions by 2050.
The federal government is also trying to spur investment in the costly technology by promising a tax credit for companies that deploy carbon capture projects. Legislation to implement the tax credit is expected to be introduced within weeks.
“Excessive expectations”
However, while the IEA report recognizes that carbon capture is an important tool in the fight against climate change — particularly when it comes to offsetting emissions from sectors that have no alternatives viable — he warns against “excessive expectations” and reliance on technology.
The report says limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the goal the international community committed to with the Paris Agreement, would require 32 billion tonnes of emissions to be sequestered by the carbon capture by 2050.
“The amount of electricity needed to power these technologies would be greater than current global electricity demand,” the report says, adding that this amount of captured carbon would also require an increase in global spending on the technology from 4 billion last year to 3500 billion by 2050.
The report adds that oil and gas companies should consider diversifying into clean energy rather than simply relying on carbon capture to help them maintain the status quo.
Several global organizations, including the United Nations, have argued that large-scale carbon capture will be essential if the world is to have any chance of winning the climate battle.
But some environmentalists say the oil and gas industry is turning to technology that will allow it to increase production of fossil fuels when those materials would be better left in the ground.
” This report [de l’AIE] is a resounding rebuke to all Canadian oil executives and politicians who claim they can simply resort to a government-funded carbon capture system and continue business as usual in a world that is rapidly moving away from oil and gas,” said Keith Stewart, senior energy strategist at Greenpeace Canada, in an email Thursday.
All solutions available
Kendall Dilling, president of the oil sands industry group Pathways Alliance, commented that carbon capture is not the only technology Canadian companies are exploring in their quest to decarbonize. The oil sands industry is also interested in hydrogen, geothermal, fuel cell technology and even the potential for small modular nuclear reactors, he said.
But Dilling added that Alberta’s geology is ideally suited for carbon sequestration and that the Pathways Alliance’s proposed fundamental carbon capture and storage network could capture 10 to 12 million tonnes of carbon emissions. every year.
“ [Le captage du carbone] is the key to a responsible future for many industries, including the oil and gas sector, which must continue to provide the products and services that the world will continue to need for decades to come,” said Mr. Dilling.
Grady Semmens, a spokesperson for the International CCS Knowledge Center — a Regina-based think tank that aims to advance the deployment of carbon capture — explained that to achieve large-scale global emissions reductions while responding The growing demand for energy will require all available solutions.
This includes large-scale deployment of carbon capture and storage, he added, but projects will need to move quickly in order to effectively reduce Canada’s overall emissions profile.
“It’s not a fantasy, but it will take unprecedented collaboration between industry, governments, financiers and other partners to build the projects [de captage du carbone] necessary on a massive scale and in the short timeframe required to comply with the Paris Agreement,” concluded Mr. Semmens.