Poznan talks to look at carbon capture

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International negotiators at the United Nations (UN) climate change talks in Poznan, Poland are today examining proposals to include Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) projects in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

The scheme would allow developed nations to gain carbon credits by paying for CCS projects in developing countries.

The technology which takes CO2 emissions from fossil fuel power stations and buries them underground is still undeveloped. The first-ever pilot plant in the world has recently begun operating at the Schwarze Pumpe power plant in Germany and the UK’s first demonstration plant will not be operational until 2014.

But advocates hope that including the technology in the CDM would give developing countries added incentives to commercialise the technology quickly because of the fiscal incentives offered by overseas markets.

Such incentive schemes already exist for wind, hydro, solar and energy efficiency projects under the CDM.

If agreed, the plan to include carbon capture in the CDM could take effect even before a potential new climate change treaty is put in place after talks in Copenhagen next December.

Speaking in Poznan today, Nobuo Tanaka, the head of the International Energy Agency, called for the technology to be included.

“These technologies need all the financial help they can get,” he said. “The IEA supports the inclusion of carbon capture and storage in the Clean Development Mechanism or other flexible mechanisms within the UN climate change regime.”

The IEA is calling for 20 carbon capture projects to be built by 2010.

The European Union said a test project should be completed before such projects are approved.

“We think that we should do a pilot phase testing CCS in the CDM and then have a good evaluation of that pilot phase and then make a decision over whether to have it in CDM or not,” Artur Runge-Metzger, head of the European Commission’s climate and energy unit, told reporters today in Poznan.

Negotiators are considering four options.

One would allow unlimited use of the technology. Another would limit the number of carbon-capture projects approved under CDM to eight by 2012. The other two options would disqualify the technology from CDM while researching its use further.

Critics of the initiative are worried that the scheme could lead to leakages from storage areas in developing countries because the technology is not developed enough.

Negotiators are expected to reach an agreement by Friday.

By Tom Young