Speech at Fighting Climate Change with Carbon Capture and Storage, Bergen 27-28 May 2009

The Minister's speech was based on the following:

Welcome to the second day of this conference on carbon capture and storage. I want to start by thanking all of the moderators, panellists and you in the audience for taking part in this conference. I am very pleased that we have representatives from developing countries and developed countries; governments, NGOs, IGOs, research and industry.

Because we are facing a global and most severe threat – the threat of climate change. We need to join forces to meet this global challenge, and we need to work together if we are to realize the full potential of carbon capture and storage.

Being the responsible minister for the Norwegian carbon capture and storage projects, I have first-hand knowledge on how complicated these large industrial projects really are. This is not plain sailing. We do not have all the answers.
Therefore, we need to share our experiences and learn from each other. I hope this conference can contribute to this knowledge sharing.

Yesterday you heard presentations from the intergovernmental panel on climate change and the International Energy Agency. Both stressed that carbon capture and storage is a key technology in reducing global emissions. You also heard the politicians having a fruitful and open debate on the role of technology, and the role carbon capture and storage plays in their strategies to fight climate change. I hope those exchanges of views provide you with input to today’s discussions.

Because today, it is your turn.

You are the true experts.
We politicians depend on your expertise, your innovation, and your advice.

We, the politicians, may create frameworks that help facilitate your projects. But frankly, it is you – as experts and industry representatives – who will drive the development and deployment of carbon capture and storage.

A good illustration of this is the Norwegian Sleipner Project. In 1991 the Government introduced the CO2 tax. This spurred the scientists and project developers in the Norwegian oil company Statoil to introduce a novel idea. The Sleipner Field contained natural gas rich on CO2, and to meet sales specifications in Europe, the CO2 content in the natural gas had to be reduced. The solution was to separate the CO2, and store it in a saline aquifer 1000 meters below the seabed. 

I doubt that even the most visionary of us politicians would have come up with this idea all by ourselves.  Since the start-up in 1996, one million tons of CO2 have been stored annually from the Sleipner field.

In the years after 1996, similar large scale storage projects have come on-stream. The Weyburn project in Canada – the world’s largest carbon capture and storage project. In Salah in Algeria – an excellent example of the importance developing countries will play in deploying carbon capture and storage; and the Norwegian Snøhvit Project. You will learn more about these projects during the course of the day.

Let it be clear - we welcome all technologies that will help us mitigate climate change. Carbon capture and storage is not the only solution needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

However, carbon capture and storage is a necessary element in a wide range of mitigation options which also include reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, energy efficiency and renewables.

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Carbon capture and storage offers the potential to reduce CO2 emissions by as much as 85 to 95% from fossil fuelled power plants.

However, we must not forget that this technology also offers a large potential for emission reductions from other industrial processes, such as coal-to-liquids, liquefied natural gas, cement, alumina and steel production. In fact, these industries may most likely present the early opportunities for carbon capture and the so-called
“low hanging fruits”.

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Simply put, CCS consists of capture, transportation and storage, and there are separate issues and challenges related to each.

The capture technologies are in various stages of maturity. In many respects, the capture part is mostly a question of maturing the technology, getting the costs down, and establishing incentives for dissemination and deployment.
Don’t get me wrong. This is not an easy task. But the challenge is in many ways similar to the introduction of all new technologies.

On the subject of transport, CO2 has been transported via pipelines since the 1970s. I am very pleased to say that we have panellists here today with extensive experience from the transport of CO2.

In many countries, CO2-storage is the hot potato, so to speak. There is considerable scepticism. The scepticism can generally be summed up in three questions:

• How can we be sure that stored CO2 remain in the storage reservoir?
• Who will be legally responsible for monitoring and potential seepage?
• How do we make sure that CCS-projects don’t crowd-out investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency projects?

These questions are important, and we need to answer them adequately.
International co-operation is vital, and we need a broad collaboration between all relevant parties in all countries, both developed and developing countries.

We need to create mechanisms and incentives for industry so that carbon capture and storage becomes commercially attractive.

However these mechanisms and incentives should not discriminate between technologies. Carbon capture and storage projects must not crowd-out investments in renewables and energy efficiency, or other mitigation options. This will most effectively be done by creating a global price on CO2 emissions.

Ultimately, I must stress that in the pursuit of realising global deployment and dissemination of carbon capture and storage, we must ensure maximum environmental integrity of the projects.

This requires our full attention on risk assessment, safety systems, and careful monitoring.

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To sum up:
• Carbon capture and storage is a necessary measure to combat climate change.
• We need incentives to promote the dissemination and deployment of this technology.
• And international cooperation is key – both in R&D, and in the development of international standards and guidelines.

Ladies and gentlemen – governments, organisations and companies are waiting for your expert opinions, and I wish you all the best for a successful conference!