Oil, gas and coal still made up 81.5 percent of the global energy mix in 2022 — down just 3 percent from 2015, when the Paris climate agreement was signed.
Given the slow pace of the energy transition, carbon capture and storage, or CCS, has the potential to become an important technology for achieving net zero. Advocates believe that without CCS — which gathers emissions, processes them and stores them safely underground — we simply won’t meet our climate targets.
But the technology faces a range of obstacles. Campaign groups believe CCS offers oil and gas companies a free pass to keep extracting and burning fossil fuels. Others worry about the safety of stored carbon dioxide. There are also practical constraints. CCS technology, while proven, is expensive to install, and needs subsidies and financial incentives to encourage the industry to make the short-term capital investment needed.
In this podcast episode produced by POLITICO Studio, science and technology writer Adam Green interviews leading European experts from industry and policy about the need for CCS, what’s holding it back and where it fits into Europe’s energy transition.
Ruth Herbert, CEO of Carbon Capture and Storage Association, breaks down the fundamentals of CCS. Chris Davies, a former member of the European Parliament and now director of CCS Europe, talks about the need to educate the public on the safety of onshore CCS. Jan Theulen, of building material producer Heidelberg Materials, explains why industries such as cement, where production itself results in large CO2 emissions, will need CCS most. And Torbjørg Klara Heskestad, vice president for global CCS solutions at Equinor, speaks about shared infrastructure that will help reduce the costs of CCS for carbon emitters.
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Ep 201, presented by Equinor: Israeli-Palestinian conflict — Laschet's foreign foray — Javier Solana
Ep 200, presented by Shell: Vaccine patent waivers — Macron gets mad — Facebook's Nick Clegg
Ep 199, presented by SQM: Media freedom — European travel — Social summit
Ep 198, presented by Equinor: Recovery recipes — Presidential problems — Scottish election
Ep 197: Germany's candidates — Super League shambles — data breach battles
Ep 196: Ukraine tension — Merkel succession battle — Marine litter
Ep 195: Sofagate — Central and Eastern Europe's COVID struggles — Ivan Krastev
Special Edition: Stephen Brown — An audio appreciation
Ep 194: EU faces Beijing backlash — European astronauts in conversation
Ep 193, presented by the European Training Foundation: Vax attacks — German scandals — Syria conflict
Ep 192: AstraZeneca limbo — Vaccine export bans — COVID disinformation
Ep 191: German election journey — EESC in spotlight
Ep 190: EU solidarity jabbed — Vaccine passports — China relations
Ep 189: Message to Moscow — Frontier fracas — Euro English
Ep 188: Mario Draghi's return — Italian influence — Is the EU funny?
Ep 187, presented by Equinor: Borrell Russia rumpus — Macron's rivals — Lithuania's foreign minister
Ep 186, presented by Equinor: Vaccine export fiasco — Von der Leyen's line — Belgian virologist
Ep 185, presented by BP: Europe's vaccine blame game — Brussels bubble struggles
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