Carbon capture & storage
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has estimated that CCS could remove 15-55% of global CO2 emissions this century
Why carbon capture & storage?
Carbon capture and storage involves the capture of carbon dioxide generated by the combustion of fossil fuels to provide energy, transporting the captured carbon dioxide to a suitable site, and storing it deep underground in geological formations.
In the global battle to counter carbon dioxide emissions, CCS is starting to be recognised by governments and industries as a potent weapon that could be applied to reduce emissions in the near to medium term, while helping to stabilise carbon dioxide levels for the longer term.
CCS has a particularly important potential role in countering the carbon dioxide arising from fossil fuel-fired power stations.
BP has been a leading member of the CCS community. We gained expertise through working in Alaska in the mid-1990s to investigate capturing carbon dioxide to enhance oil recovery and we have a CCS project up and running today at a gas production site in the Algerian Sahara.
BP is not alone in seeing the benefits of CCS. The European Union (EU) sees CCS as a vital technology in its recently announced drive to cut carbon dioxide emissions by at least 20 per cent by 2020. Under its European Technology Platform for Zero Emission Fossil Fuel Power Plants (ZEP), the EU has called for 10 to 12 demonstration CCS projects to be initiated to gain in-depth understanding of the technology and achieve a vision of having virtually no emissions from fossil fuel power after 2020.
For CCS to make an impact, governments need to create policies that make its deployment economically attractive, as a power plant equipped with CCS is more costly than a plant without it.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Assessing the socio-economic, scientific, technical factors related to climate change
EU's Climate Action
Integrated proposal to address energy supply, climate change and industrial development
Climate Change and BP
Found out what BP is doing.
