Economic and time sensitive issues surrounding CCS – A policy analysis

Are the existing global policies on combating global warming via the carbon capture and storage (CCS) method significant enough to curtail the temperature rise on time? We argue it is already too late to have any reliance on CCS. The current status of CCS is that it is plagued by technical uncertainties, infrastructure, financial and regulatory issues. The technology is far from maturity and hence commercialisation. Simulations conducted in this work suggest that the relevance of CCS is completely defied if the annual emission growth rate is in excess of 2% between 2015-2040. At such a growth rate the annual emissions reduction between 2040-2100 need to be in the vicinity of 5.5% on 2100 level. Considering an average 2.5% annual emissions growth rate over the last decade, it seems ACS Paragon Plus Environment Environmental Science & Technology 2 11 unlikely that the emissions could be contained to a 2% growth level. CCS in its 12 current shape and form is at odds with the economics of its implementation and 13 the time in hand to play a significant role in carbon mitigation strategy. There is 14 an urgent need to re think policies and strategies to combat global warming at 15 least to some degree. Environ. Sci. Technol., Just Accepted Publication Date (Web): June 26, 2015 (Policy Analysis) DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.5b00839 Downloaded from http://pubs.acs.org on July 1, 2015Griffith Sciences, Griffith School of EnvironmentNo Full Tex