Oil, gas and coal still made up 81.5 percent of the global energy mix in 2022 — down just 3 percent from 2015, when the Paris climate agreement was signed.
Given the slow pace of the energy transition, carbon capture and storage, or CCS, has the potential to become an important technology for achieving net zero. Advocates believe that without CCS — which gathers emissions, processes them and stores them safely underground — we simply won’t meet our climate targets.
But the technology faces a range of obstacles. Campaign groups believe CCS offers oil and gas companies a free pass to keep extracting and burning fossil fuels. Others worry about the safety of stored carbon dioxide. There are also practical constraints. CCS technology, while proven, is expensive to install, and needs subsidies and financial incentives to encourage the industry to make the short-term capital investment needed.
In this podcast episode produced by POLITICO Studio, science and technology writer Adam Green interviews leading European experts from industry and policy about the need for CCS, what’s holding it back and where it fits into Europe’s energy transition.
Ruth Herbert, CEO of Carbon Capture and Storage Association, breaks down the fundamentals of CCS. Chris Davies, a former member of the European Parliament and now director of CCS Europe, talks about the need to educate the public on the safety of onshore CCS. Jan Theulen, of building material producer Heidelberg Materials, explains why industries such as cement, where production itself results in large CO2 emissions, will need CCS most. And Torbjørg Klara Heskestad, vice president for global CCS solutions at Equinor, speaks about shared infrastructure that will help reduce the costs of CCS for carbon emitters.
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Episode 56: Phil Hogan — Amélie de Montchalin (En Marche) — Juncker and Trump stumble
Episode 55, presented by Raytheon: Inside the NATO summit
Episode 54: NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg — Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki — EU Parliament expense shock
Episode 53, presented by Google: Wolfgang Schäuble — Danny McCoy — EU's Migration Troubles
Episode 52, presented by Martens Centre: Women Rule! - Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka - Rome's Roma rhetoric
Episode 51: Helle Thorning-Schmidt — European Parliament election — Migration debate
Episode 50, presented by Google: How NGOs lobby the EU — OSF's Patrick Gaspard — Leaders get younger
Episode 49, sponsored by Barilla Foundation: Nicola Sturgeon — Journalist's revival — Irish vote
Episode 48: Big tech’s brain hijack — Data protection D-Day — Zuckerberg’s Brussels moment
Episode 47: Combating anti-Semitism — Boosting the Balkans — Europe from afar
Episode 46, presented by Grow with Google: Curbing idealism - EESC chief Luca Jahier - Hot mic hell
Episode 45: Margrethe Vestager — EU budget battle — Whistleblower protection
Episode 44, presented by Grow with Google: EU's energy future – Spencer Dale – Macron & Trump
Episode 43, presented by Grow with Google: Cécile Kyenge — Harassment investigation — Winking Macron
Episode 42: The Orbán effect — Mr. Data Protection — Harassment at EU gender equality agency
Episode 41: Bill Gates — Judging junkets — Greek MEPs' special stopover
Episode 40, presented by Edelman and PAC: Brexit Countdown — Guy Verhofstadt — Brussels Press Revue
Episode 39: Lithuania's Linas Linkevičius — Artificial Intelligence — Naughty MEPs
Episode 38: President Margvelashvili of Georgia— Ryanair's Michael O'Leary
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