Carbon capture will be the top contributor to curbing greenhouse gases by 2050, ahead of renewable energies and nuclear power but behind energy efficiency savings. Thereby, International Energy Agency (IEA) believes that legal guidelines for burying greenhouse gases should be put in place to help the tiny business become one of the main ways of fighting global warming by 2050
Claude Mandil, executive director of the IEA, which advises 26 industrialized nations is quoted to have said:
There is a need...for a worldwide agreement on the legal challenges,
Pilot projects for capturing gases emitted mainly by burning fossil fuels in power plants, refineries and factories now accounted for 0.05 percent of the potential total by mid-century, the IEA said.
Mandil said that there were unsolved legal questions about who would be liable in the event of leaks from carbon stores, for instance in 20, 50 or 100 years’ time, and about issues such as property rights, waste and technology transfers.
The IEA issued a 140-page booklet about legal aspects of storing carbon dioxide outlining the problem but stopping short of giving clear recommendations, for instance about whether governments should assume liability for leaks in the long term.
Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is a process that will allow the heat-trapping pollution from burning coal for electricity to be captured and stored underground.
If all human-induced emissions were sequestered, enough capacity would exist to accommodate more than 100 years’ worth of emissions, according to Benson, coordinating lead author of the IPCC chapter on underground geological storage. However, it is in fact an extremely expensive procedure.
Source: Reuters
