Carbon Capture & Storage? What’s that all about? 

The theory is beautiful: Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the main cause of climate change and we’re emitting more and more and more of it. It traps the sun’s heat which causes the Earth to warm dangerously. This is not news – Eunice Newton Foote discovered it in 1856, writing that “An atmosphere of that gas would give to our earth a high temperature” – as it does indeed. So, if we really can capture this dangerous excess and store it away safely, what’s not to like?  

Right?

Our government seems to think so. They’re proposing to invest twenty two billion pounds in carbon capture and storage, or CCS as it’s known. This is a sum so large as will eclipse other research and smother new technologies.

If CCS really is the answer, fair enough. But is it?

We think not. MP Watch national has access to considerable expertise and has produced a practical briefing for busy MPs who need both a short summary and links to the most important research and its conclusions. Its title is Carbon Capture and Storage and it can be found here. https://www.mpwatch.org/climate-briefing.   

Our concerns, very briefly, are as follows:

CCS is to be aimed largely at new power stations which will use fossil fuels (gas or blue hydrogen). This will lock us into fossil fuels for decades. Most of the gas will be imported LNG (liquified natural gas) with a very large carbon footprint ‘upstream’ of the power station. CCS used thus will not, in truth, reduce emissions very much, if at all. LNG imports may be as bad, or worse, than using coal, for example. There is a weak case for retrofitting existing power stations, but the various alternatives already available are much better.

Politically, CCS is, perhaps, most attractive as an apparent get-out-of-jail-free card. It’s a species of spin, designed to make it seem that we’re sorting the problem but in reality allowing fossil fuel business as usual to roll on, trailing its emissions as before.

The fossil fuel companies lobbied hard for CCS which ought to tell us something …

Why not have a look at the briefing doc here: https://www.mpwatch.org/climate-briefing?  It’s the first briefing doc MP Watch has produced as we pivot towards working with our many MP allies – MPs like Charlie Maynard in Witney constituency who ‘get’ science and want to address climate change seriously. Our briefing docs will help busy MPs like Charlie get up to speed quickly on specific climate issues while also offering immediate access to original research sources in depth and detail.

Watch this space, as they say…