NOAH's position on public funding of CCS
CCS is currently not economically viable, neither from a socio-economic nor from a business point of view. And nothing suggests that this is going to change over the next decades. Hence for CCS to be realized it must rely on massive public financial support of the technology.
NOAH is against any use of public funding of CCS.
Proponents of CCS have been very successful in persuading the EU that there is a need for massive public subsidies for research and development and pilot and demonstration plants. Fossil business has generally managed to depict CCS as a necessary transitional technology.
Public support will give CCS a competitive advantage in comparison with investments in energy efficiency systems and renewable energy technologies.
Private firms, energy companies and organizations as well as public research institutions share a common interest in such large-scale projects as a deployment of CCS will generate. NOAH believes there is a great need for increased public scrutiny and discussion of these stakeholders' role in the decision-making about CCS.