IEA report warns oil and gas companies against banking on carbon capture
Carbon capture and storage has become a key plank of the Canadian oil and gas sector’s decarbonization goals, but a new report from the International Energy Agency warns against banking on the technology as the planet continues to warm.
In a report released Thursday, the Paris-based IEA said oil and gas companies need to start “letting go of the illusion” that “implausibly large” amounts of carbon capture are the solution to the global climate crisis.
In Canada, carbon capture and storage has become a key pillar of the oil and gas sector’s decarbonization goals.
Oilsands companies, for example, have banded together to propose a $16.5-billion carbon capture and storage project in northern Alberta that they say will help them reach net-zero emissions from production by 2050.
The report states that limiting global temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the target the international community committed to with the Paris Agreement, would require an “inconceivable” 32 billion tonnes of emissions to be sequestered by carbon capture by 2050.
“The amount of electricity needed to power these technologies would be greater than the entire world’s electricity demand today,” the report said, adding that amount of carbon capture would also require an increase in global spending on the technology from $4 billion last year to $3.5 trillion by 2050.
The report states oil and gas companies need to consider diversifying into clean energy rather than simply counting on carbon capture to help them maintain the status quo.
“This (IEA) report is a stunning rebuke to all the Canadian oil executives and politicians claiming that they can simply slap on some government-funded carbon capture and continue with business as usual in a world rapidly weaning itself off of oil and gas,” said Keith Stewart, senior energy strategist for Greenpeace Canada, in an email Thursday. |Read more https://globalnews.ca/news/10111340/iea-report-warns-oil-and-gas-against-carbon-capture/| globalnews.ca/news/10111340/ie…
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