Carbon capture: really good at capturing public dollars. But emissions? Not so much.
That’s why we at ECO are so concerned about the platform being given to fossil fuel companies today at Decarbonization Day to peddle their dangerous distractions.
Fossil fuel companies are pretending that by relying on risky and expensive techno fixes like carbon capture and storage we can keep digging up fossil fuels. But they’re lying to everyone.
As a climate mitigation technology it just doesn’t work. Eco notes that despite decades of research and tens of billions in subsidies, carbon capture’s track record is of expensive failure after expensive failure.
Even if it did work, it’s not a climate solution. Carbon capture does nothing about the 80% of emissions that come when the oil and gas gets burned. Sinking billions of dollars into clawing back a fraction of emissions from already expensive, polluting fossil fuel facilities is absurd and unnecessary — it is always more efficient and more effective to invest in renewables and energy efficiency.
It’s no surprise that the most recent IPCC report ranked carbon capture and storage the highest cost and least effective mitigation option. There’s also a reason that carbon capture doesn’t show up even once in the new UN guidelines on net zero plans.
And CCS projects also pose significant new risks to people and the environment, by providing a lifeline to a polluting industry that is threatening ecosystems and human health. Only last week the Netherlands’ highest court ruled that the largest CCS storage project in the EU may have to be halted because it did not meet European environmental guidelines. At the same time, peoples’ movements from Manila to California are rising up against CCS projects.
Of course, oil and gas companies know all this. They’re not interested in carbon capture and storage as a way to take climate action – for them, it’s a greenwashing scheme to protect their business as usual of digging up fossil fuels. It’s also used to dig up even more when used as ‘enhanced oil recovery’. The dangerous dash for gas is being falsely justified with CCS. It’s also a way for these companies to rake in even more fossil fuel subsidies (public money that should be going for instance to loss and damage, not the wealthiest companies).
It’s a similar story when it comes to so-called blue hydrogen. Blue hydrogen is fossil hydrogen with the promise of carbon capture. But again, it’s a false promise. Burning blue hydrogen is even worse than burning coal or fossil gas directly. Like with CCS, fossil fuel companies are using hydrogen as an excuse to lock in more fossil gas infrastructure
The fossil fuel industry is championing these escape hatches in the halls of COP27 – and their lobbying is working. These false solutions are showing up in NDCs, in country statements, in ‘net zero’ commitments and in the negotiating rooms, including the global stocktake. They’re showing up in Article 6.4, which opens the door for dangerous loopholes that would undermine the integrity of the Paris Agreement.
You can’t tackle climate change by cheating. And we cannot win the fight against climate change without getting off of fossil fuels.