Innlegg på Vattenfalls CCS-seminar 8. september 2008

Statssekretær Liv Monica Bargem Stubholt holdt innlegg basert på følgende manus: 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

• “The world’s current energy prospects are – put simply – unsustainable.”  These are not only my words, but also those of the International Energy Agency, who says that despite all the talk about climate change, energy demand has continued to increase in recent years, and global CO2 emissions along with it.

• According to the International Energy Agency’s base case scenario demand for energy will increase by more than 50 percent between now and 2030. More than 80 percent of this increase will be met by fossil fuels. Developing countries account for ¾ of the projected increase in energy demand and about half of the increase in energy used for power generation.

• Coal is by far the most important energy source in power generation. Its share of power generation is about 40 percent and is expected to increase. The world’s coal reserve base is vast. Measured against today’s consumption level, proven coal reserves will last for 150 years while oil and gas will last for 40 and 60 years respectively. Important energy consuming areas have large coal reserves and they will undoubtedly rely on these in their energy mix.

• Our challenge is to meet this increase in energy demand. This can only be met by sufficient and timely investments in the energy sector. At the same time such a huge increase in consumption of fossil fuel is not sustainable.

• In its recent “Energy Technology Perspective” the IEA show that if nothing is done – if economic growth continue as expected, no new technology introduced to change the relation between economic growth and energy consumption and no new policy or measures are introduced to reduce CO2 emission – then by 2050 we will have a 130 percent increase in global energy related CO2-emissions.  According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a rise in CO2 emissions of such magnitude could raise global average temperatures by 6°C, perhaps more.

• This cannot happen! We believe that to avoid dangerous climate change, global average temperatures must rise no more than 2 degrees above pre-industrial level. According to the IPCC this means that global emissions have to peak no later than 2015 and have to be reduced at least by half no later than 2050 compared to 1990 level.

•  According to the IEA and the IPCC there are technology and policy options that can reverse the CO2-emissions.  Indeed, a 50 percent reduction from today’s emission level could be feasible by 2050.  But the change needed to achieve such an aim is daunting, amounting to nothing less than an energy revolution!

• Energy efficiency can play a substantial contribution: according to the IEA energy efficiency could account for about more than 1/3 of the CO2 reduction. However, renewables, nuclear power and carbon capture and storage (CCS) will also play an important role. I think it is interesting to note that according to the IEA about 1/5 of the reductions necessary can be accomplished through CCS.

• In my view it is necessary that we welcome, promote and contribute to fund research, innovation and technologies that will help us mitigate climate change. Firstly, this requires increased focus on renewable energies such as hydro power, wind power, sun power and biomass as well as energy efficiency. But we must also meet the challenge of securing a sustainable future energy supply by reducing the emissions from the production and use of fossil fuels. Carbon capture and storage is one of several possible environmental technologies to achieve that – and it is identified as a key area for the Norwegian government’s contribution.

• The Norwegian petroleum industry already has extensive experience in storing CO2 in geological structures offshore. Since 1996, one million tons of CO2 per year have been separated from the gas production on the Sleipner field in the North Sea and stored in a geological formation 1,000 meters below the seabed. Multinational research projects have collected relevant data in the formation, and developed and demonstrated prediction methods for the movement of the CO2 for many years into the future. The data show the precise subsurface location of the CO2 plume and confirms that there is no sign of leakage.

• In the Snøhvit field in the Barents Sea, 700,000 tons of CO2 will be separated annually from the natural gas and reinjected and stored in the Tubåen formation, a geological formation 2,600 metres under the seabed. The first amount of CO2 was injected and stored in April this year.

• The Norwegian government and the oil company StatoilHydro have signed an agreement to establish a full-scale CO2 capture and storage plant in conjunction with a combined heat and power plant at Mongstad at the west coast of Norway. In order to reduce technical and financial risk, the project will progress in two stages. The first stage covers construction and operation of a capture testing facility, the Test Centre Mongstad (TCM), which will be operational by 2011. It will have capacity to capture at least 100 000 tons of CO2 per year. An agreement has been signed with the State, DONG Energy, Shell, StatoilHydro and
Vattenfall for cooperation in the planning phase at TCM. The second stage, i.e. full-scale capture of approximately 1.5 million tons of CO2 per year, shall be in place by the end of 2014.

• The Norwegian Government is planning to construct a full scale CCS (retrofit) facility for a gas fired power plant in connection to the existing gas fired power plant at Kårstø on the Western coast of Norway. The plan is to make the investment decision in 2009. The facility will capture 1 million tonnes of CO2 from the exhaust gas at the power plant and subsequently transport the CO2 by pipeline to safe storage in geological formations under the sea bed. The State owned entity Gassnova is responsible for this important and comprehensive work.

• None of the planned CCS projects in Norway can be realised without substantial public founding. Hence, Norway warmly welcomes the recent decision by the EFTA Surveillance Authority on the Test Centre Mongstad not to raise objections to the Norwegian State’s investment in the company that will construct and own the test centre.

• Both Germany and Norway have extensive experience of transporting natural gas via pipelines. We have legal regimes and safety standards that ensure the maximum environmentally safe transport. The transportation of CO2 is very similar to the transportation of natural gas. 

• The combined transport and storage experiences of our two countries and the legal regime and safety standards Germany has in place to ensure the maximum environmentally safe transport and storage of natural gas should be used as guidance for our work on CO2-storage.
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• Summing up: To reach our goals we need renewables, energy efficiency, as well as reducing the emissions from the production and use of fossil fuels. Carbon capture and storage technology is vital to keep the increase in global average temperature within 2 ˚C.
• An enforced effort to stimulate development, deployment and dissemination of this technology at a global scale will only be met through international cooperation.

• The Norwegian government has – as I have out-lined today – chosen to embrace challenging and unfamiliar tasks to contribute to the development of CCS technology.  It is not an obvious solution for governments to engage in industrial and technological development projects – but we have nevertheless chosen this path.  

• As we face  climate change, courage and flexibility will be required by us all. Industry will have to adjust their business strategies to ensure they are sufficiently long term.  NGO and civil society will be challenged to balance their support for the ideal solution with practical and available answers to today’s urgent need to curb emission  of green house gases.  Many are prepared to do so.  Industry’s preparedness to work with others and form alliances to combat climate change contributes positively to making this possible.