Apparently the short list of clean energy technologies being considered for the climate development mechanism excludes carbon capture and sequestration, aka “clean coal” projects. The clean development mechanism, under the Kyoto Protocol, allows developed countries to invest in certain emission-reduction projects in developing countries to offset their own emissions. Since these projects generally cost less to deploy in the developing world it is considered a cheaper avenue for rich countries to meet their obligation. That was the same thinking around CCS and clean coal, but Brazil has roadblocked the technology for fear that its inclusion in the list would suck financial resources away from other options, such as forest preservation. There have also been concerns expressed about CCS liability issues and guarantees around the permanence of long-term storage.

Obviously, this isn’t great news for the coal industry. What’s that expression — cry me a river? It doesn’t mean CCS can’t be put to good use in rich countries, but obviously that will come at higher cost. Will anyone want to pay developed-world prices to get the needed 100 or so clean coal and carbon sequestration projects working? Tough to say, but I doubt it. Developing-world projects were considered a way to get some volume deployment, and without that, it doesn’t look good for coal. But given what’s on the line for Canada, Australia, the U.S. and others, leaving out CCS doesn’t look good for Copenhagen either, so someone’s going to have to give.

Isn’t international politics fun?

Tags: CCS, clean coal, Clean development mechanism, Copenhagen

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 17th, 2009 at 10:28 pm and is filed under emissions, green politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.