NOAH's position on the climate effects of CCS
NOAH finds that proponents of CCS tend to mislead policymakers and the public by maintaining that CCS will contribute significantly to the solution of the climate problem.
Particularly deceptive is the claim that CCS can remove 85-90% of CO2 from power plants. This is pure theory. Removal rates of this magnitude have not even been demonstrated in pilot plants. It should be stressed that the theoretical rates apply only to the capture process. The full chain of CCS activities should be viewed in a context as this will reveal that greenhouse gas emissions occur in all stages of the CCS chain - emissions that should be deducted from the reductions achieved in the capture stage in the overall account.
Such a calculation shows that CCS as a whole can only be expected to reduce CO2 emissions by 70 - 75% and this is even based on an optimistic assumption that the capture process is able to remove 85% in full scale installations. The climate aspect of the problem is obvious, because the 25-30%, which is not captured, in itself, could quickly "fill" the atmosphere to the point where we are likely to get a temperature rise of more than 2 degrees Celsius.
Combustion of the current reserves of coal and oil can lead to a discharge of around 18,000 Gt of CO2. Even if you - totally unrealistic - assumes that CCS installations here and now could be deployed at all power plants using coal and oil, and that these facilities remove the mentioned 70% of CO2 emissions, CCS would still lead to a release of at least 5400 Gt CO2 over the next 100 -150 years. To this should be added emissions from the burning of gas and the impact from all other greenhouse gases. The quantities of greenhouse gases that according to the IPCC's fourth assessment report can be emitted throughout the 21. century without exceeding the temperature interval of 2,0-2,4 degrees Celsius lie within the range of 800-1500 Gt of CO2.
Currently, global emissions of greenhouse gases are equivalent to around 50 Gt of CO2 per year. Therefore – even if we were to spend all resources to establish CCS today, we would still soon exceed the 2-degree threshold.
CCS will also weaken or delay the opportunities for a development based on energy conservation and renewable energy.
CCS is not the solution to the climate problem.