Wow! Clean coal, CCS shunned in Copenhagen
Thursday, December 17th, 2009Apparently 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?
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
