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Ecology & Environment
Mahesh

07/12/23 07:08 AM IST

To achieve net-zero target, do not rely on burying emissions underground, says scientist

In News
  • The idea that all the problematic carbon dioxide emissions in the future can be safely and permanently buried in the ground with carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technologies might be extremely misplaced and impractical, a new study by researchers of Oxford University and Imperial College in London suggests.
Major Highlights of the study
  • CCS involves the capture of carbon from the source of emissions, like a power plant or a cement factory, and storing it below the ground in suitable geological structures such as depleted oil or gas reservoirs or some specific rock formations to prevent the release of these carbon emissions into the atmosphere.
  • All net-zero emissions pathways to 2050 put forward by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change involve some deployment of CCS technologies.
  • There are currently no projections which make the world net-zero without some sort of carbon capture and sequestration.
  • Emission pathways that require the world to put up to 20 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide underground in 2050 to achieve net-zero could cost at least US$ 30 trillion more than the pathways in which only about 5 billion tonnes have to be stored.
  • The cost of nuclear power, for example, is now rising, if anything. The cost of hydropower is rising slightly.
  • All CCS projects around the world have a combined capacity to put away about 49 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. That is just about one-thousandth of the annual CO2 emissions.
  • CCS needs to be deployed in a strategic and targeted manner.
  • This idea that because we have CCS, we can continue using fossil fuels for a longer time won’t work. We need to do sensible things like shifting to renewables and halting deforestation.
Source- Indian Express

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