Fighting Climate Change with Carbon Capture and Storage

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Ladies and gentlemen,

• This Conference in Bergen on Fighting Climate Change with Carbon Capture and Storage has taken place at a critical juncture in the process leading up to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Our explicit purpose has been to advance knowledge and common understanding of CCS. Our ambition has been to make Bergen an important step on the road to Copenhagen. 
• Many high-level policymakers, including heads of government and cabinet ministers, as well as representatives of the research community, international organisations and industry took part. This broad participation demonstrated the importance of implementing CCS as a tool in fighting climate change.
• We agreed on the need for ambitious and substantial cuts in global greenhouse gas emissions. We stressed the need to focus on renewable energy and energy efficiency as well as on low emission technologies. 
• The world’s consumption of energy will be based on fossil fuels for many years to come. We therefore need to concentrate on reducing emissions from fossil fuel consumption. As repeatedly stated by the IPCC, this is why the solution offered by CCS is so critical.
• Carbon capture and storage has enormous potential for reducing global emissions, as Dr Pachauri underlined at the Conference.  At present, no other technology has the potential to reduce /CO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants. CCS is one of the key technologies for mitigating CO2 emissions, as pointed out by IEA Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka.
• We need much greater activity with regard to CCS globally than we see today.
• In the future, no new fossil power plants should be built unless they include CCS.
• High-level participants visited Norway’s Sleipner Project in the North Sea, which has been operating since 1996. It demonstrated that technologies related to the separation and subsequent storage of CO2 in geological formations are available and have been proven under full-scale operational conditions for more than a decade.
• Reference was also made to other full-scale and operational projects such as the Weyburn Project in Canada, the In Salah Project in Algeria and the Snøhvit Project in Norway.  There are also a number of pilot projects in operation or under development in the European Union, in North America and in other regions, which will provide important steps forward in making CCS a commercially-attractive mitigation option.

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Eight key messages have emerged from this conference:

1. A comprehensive approach to reducing CO2 emissions must include CCS.

There is widespread recognition that we need to move forward with a suite of options, including CCS as a key climate technology.

Deployment of new technologies, including CCS, will depend on public confidence. Strong political leadership is necessary if we are to build confidence concerning the safety and environmental impact of new technologies, and generate public support.

2. Sustainable economic growth is possible, and CCS is a key step in the transition to a low-emission society.

We discussed some of the major challenges facing us: How do we decouple economic growth and emissions growth? How can we combine the global need for growth with reduced greenhouse gas emissions and reduced damage to the environment?  These are only dilemmas if we continue using the same old technologies and continue with the same lifestyles and mindsets as today.

We discussed the impact of the financial crisis on investments in green technologies. We need to focus on the opportunities available to us. Several speakers stressed that countries have used part of their stimulus packages to facilitate the transition to a greener economy. We need a better analysis of the measures taken in the many different stimulus packages. 

The messages from the World Commission on Environment and Development chaired by Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland remain valid, above all, that sustainable development is possible. The challenges have become more urgent, and we agree that a transition to a low-emission society is both necessary and feasible. We still need to introduce system-wide incentives that can promote a change in investment, production and consumption patterns.

3. More large-scale demonstration plants, more R&D and a major scaling up of present CCS efforts are needed.

We stressed that public financing is particularly important for research and development and pilot plants. Efforts to further develop and deploy CCS technologies are showing encouraging progress, but cooperation on large-scale plants needs to be further intensified. Major point sources of CO2 emissions from the industrial sector, including cement, steel and chemicals should also be included.

4. Stimulating framework conditions are necessary in order to encourage wide-scale capture and storage of CO2.

We need to further develop and implement legal and regulatory frameworks to encourage CCS. There has been much progress on such frameworks, but more needs to be done to ensure implementation and wider advancement of public health, safety, liability and financing issues.

5. Transport and storage projects must minimise the risks of negative impacts on the environment, health and safety.

It is crucial that a broad deployment of carbon capture corresponds with the global storage capacity.  Not all countries may have access to suitable storage formations within their own territory. International cooperation should be strengthened to facilitate such access and current barriers should be lifted. Proposals for further amendments to the London Protocol have been submitted to this effect. Adoption of these amendments will be considered at the meeting of contracting parties to the London Protocol, which will take place in October this year. Amendments to the OSPAR Convention should be ratified by all signatories.

Proper site selection, environmental impact assessment, monitoring and remediation plans are important for ensuring that storage is environmentally safe. Several examples of adoption of legally-binding guidelines for carbon transport and storage have been highlighted, both at national and multinational levels. Concrete preparations are underway for broad deployment of CCS.

6. Private sector companies have a special role to play in making CCS commercially viable.

Stronger financial incentives are needed for CCS development. Barriers to scaling up efforts must be removed. Measures for mobilising financial resources and enhancing international cooperation are crucial for making CCS commercially viable.

One of the most important commercial incentives will be putting an adequate price on carbon.

The private sector, including producers of fossil energy, the manufacturing industry and others should accelerate efforts to make the technology commercially viable, through early market introduction on a global scale. Public-private partnerships are especially needed in the initial stage. The long-term profit opportunities for the private sector should be made clear in order to attract private investments.

7. CCS must be accessible to developing countries.

Developed countries must lead the way in reducing CO2 emissions. Technology cooperation, capacity-building and financial support must be part of a global solution. Energy poverty is a serious challenge for many developing countries. CCS is therefore not a relevant option for all countries. Others are already taking action on CCS and are eager to partner with other countries in order to expand cooperation and learning.  Opinions differ as to whether or not inclusion of CCS in the Clean Development Mechanism is important for the rollout of CCS in developing countries.

The international climate regime should strengthen the promotion of technology cooperation and partnerships so as to make CCS accessible to developing countries.  Such partnerships are already being developed through bilateral programmes and through institutions like the IEA, the Carbon Sequestration Leaderships Forum (CSLF) and the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute (GCCSI) in Australia, but they need to be enhanced.

8. From Bergen to Copenhagen.

Bergen is an essential step on the road towards Copenhagen. The Bergen summary will be fed into the subsequent processes.

The UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009 is a golden opportunity for explicitly including CCS as a key climate mitigation technology.  This is an opportunity that should not be missed.  Funding mechanisms for demonstrating CCS and other mitigation technologies – allowing for global awareness-raising and specific capacity-building for interested countries – are needed.

The International Energy Agency has, by means of its side-event to the high-level conference in Bergen, provided the G8 with a peer review on criteria and stocktaking in connection with the goal of launching 20 large-scale CCS demonstration projects before 2010.  The result of the peer review will provide the delegates in Copenhagen with valuable information.

The World Bank and other multilateral institutions have emphasised their interest in providing financial support for CCS. Support for establishing financial mechanisms for capacity-building and investments has been expressed by many delegates.

The CSLF (Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum) will follow up on messages from the Bergen conference at its ministerial meeting in the UK in October 2009. In particular, this will be a time to launch the IEA international CCS roadmap and the new CSLF strategic plan and new technology roadmap, which will provide key messages, policy directions and milestones for CCS.

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• Very encouraging examples of planned and ongoing research projects, test centres, demonstration plants, legislation and regulation for transport and storage, financial support etc. have been highlighted at this conference.
• As Dr Pachauri stated, we share an enormous sense of urgency with regard to climate change. This conference has shown that there is broad political support for speeding up CCS development and deployment efforts as a key part of our response.

Thank you.