Sign In
Learn bits
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

More Related Current Affairs View All

05 May

Key objectives of caste count

'The Union Cabinet has decided that the next Census will include questions on caste to its enumeration of India’s population, for the first time in almost a century. ' T

Read More

05 May

2 new genome-edited rice varieties

'Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan recently released two genome-edited varieties of rice, the first achievement of its kind in the country.' These two varieties, which

Read More

05 Mar

First-ever comprehensive survey of India’s river dolphins

'Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the results of the first-ever comprehensive population estimation of riverine dolphins – Gangetic and Indus dolphins – done in In

Read More

India’s First Ai-Driven Magazine Generator

Generate Your Custom Current Affairs Magazine using our AI in just 3 steps