Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)
Carbon Capture and Storage, the process of capturing carbon dioxide and storing it instead of emitting it into the atmosphere, is seen as an important step towards a low carbon economy. One of the main barriers to CCS is the costs of demonstrating the technology at scale. The Foundation is working on a joint initiative with The Climate Group to assess the readiness of the private sector to finance CCS. Funded by the Global CCS Instiute, in the first phase of the project the team spoke with over 30 large private sector capital providers to understand their perception of the risks, and their required returns for funding CCS. The findings from this initial phase has been published in a short report. We believe our findings will be helpful to those operating in the world of CCS, including project developers and policymakers, as the findings could have important implications for the availability of private sector finance for CCS.
We intend to build on our initial findings through additional interviews with private sector capital providers to widen the geographic reach as well as explore other examples of possible CCS projects such as enhanced oil recovery and/or retrofitting. We will disseminate these findings to stakeholders such as capital providers, project developers and policymakers, in order to help break down the identified barriers.
In 2009 we led the discussions in London around the financing of CCS as part of a two-day facilitated dialogue for a cross-sectoral spectrum of industry, capital providers, NGOs, and regulators organised by Green Alliance. The dialogue highlighted some interesting issues that UK CCS policy should cover.
Previously, in 2008, together with the European Climate Foundation and E3G , the Foundation was part of a coalition that played a significant role in securing approximately 4 billion Euros from the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) for CCS demonstration. The provision in the Review of EU ETS Directive was part of the Climate and Energy (CARE) Package that was adopted by the EU in December 2009 and the details regarding this provision were determined through comitology in February 2010. The CARE Package also adopted legislation addressing the necessary regulatory framework for ownership and liability associated with transport and storage.
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