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Carbon Capture and Storage – The Win-Win Innovation We've All Been Waiting For or a Real Threat to Our Oceans?

  • stauss5
  • 6 days ago
  • 4 min read

In one of the module's blinks, we have taken a closer look at Carbon Capture and Storage systems (CCS) and the challenges it brings to the wider environment, especially on some companies' road to net zero. The technology is currently being diligently discussed as, with the increasing spotlight on the Emission Trading System, CCS's economic benefit is expected to increase as well. This strengthens the business case for the technology and attracts financial investments. Equity financings have significantly increased in the past years, and the first debt raise is expected to close soon. Some governments are also strongly supporting CCS. In the UK, where the government even commits funding in its budgets to it, clusters were introduced to invent a full system of technologies that work together to capture millions of tons of CO2. An example of that would be the East Coast Cluster with a diverse mix of industrial carbon capture, low-carbon hydrogen production, negative emissions power, and power with carbon capture. Through the cluster, an average of 25,000 additional jobs per year are created. The Climate Change Committee of the UK views CCS as a key tool to achieving its targets around carbon budgets in the future. In the US, CCS is also used as a key mitigation tool in fossil fuels, and policies are strongly supporting the development of new CCS projects.


The rationale behind CCS seems simple. Instead of only reducing our inflow in our "CO2 in the air & atmosphere"-stock through supporting renewable energies, CCS delivers an opportunity to additionally increase the outflow of the system. With benefitting emission targets, providing jobs, being applicable to known technologies, and being financially attractive, CCS sounds like it's the win-win technology for everyone.


Despite these benefits, CCS is not without its challenges and limitations. It is not a proven technology at all and currently too costly resulting in many projects not being finished, while the connected heavy-carbon plants are continuously being built. The intervention point of changing the structure of the flows is too weak to result in a systematic change and we are not in a position at all to not cut down on heavy-carbon technologies.


But one point really stood out to me personally. Having completed over 100 dives since earning my Open Water Diving certificate at 14, I have developed a deep respect for our oceans. This personal connection made me particularly concerned when I learned about the increased efforts to find solutions to store carbon in reservoirs below the oceans. After all, the increase of the outflow of one system, will result in the increase of the inflow in another system and we're somehow just moving the stock elsewhere.


The primary threat to the oceans coming from the storage are leakages out of the reservoir. Especially in the North Sea, there are thousands of abandoned wells, which are poorly documented and old bores, which pose a key risk for leakages. There were several field studies and investigations carried out suggesting different results, showing again the uncertainty around CCS technology. All studies agree that leaks on the sea floor can lead to acidification of the water and sediments, while the impact is assessed differently due to geographically different existing CO2 levels already in the oceans.


The ocean has worked as a carbon sink in the past thousand years already and the marine ecosystems are stressed due to ocean acidification resulting from this. Compared to pre-industrial times the acidity in oceans has increased by 30%. This results in structures of coral reefs being weakened, higher mortality rates of shellfish and disturbed development of fish in general. These direct effects lead to a ripple effect as especially shellfish is at the lower end of the food chain, so if shellfish and plankton population is decreasing, the population of the predators above is declining as well, rippling through to the human food chain. That is only one of many significant effects of ocean acidification. And as the ocean is an already disturbed system, it's more difficult to clearly assess and attribute impacts of leaks on the ocean ecosystem.


This example perfectly shows the risk symmetry of a technology. It is expected that we will not reach our 1.5-degree Celsius target solely on the basis of building out renewables and decreasing our emissions. So, not using CCS will probably expose us to tremendous risks. On the other side, the uncertainties relating to the impacts on a strained ecosystem, the ocean, are also high. Time is a precious source in our fight against global warming, but we would need it to diligently assess impacts and find safer storage solutions for CCS.


In conclusion, CCS technology is a good starting point, however, it is only a starting point for now. While the technology presents a promising tool in our fight against climate change, its potential risks to ocean ecosystems cannot be overlooked. It is crucial that we continue to explore and refine this technology, as well as continue phasing-out heavy-carbon technologies to build a sustainable future.


 

References

Andreas Oschlies, Lennart T. Bach , Rosalind E. M. Rickaby, Terre Satterfield, Romany Webb, Jean-Pierre Gattuso (2023): Climate targets, carbon dioxide removal, and the potential role of ocean alkalinity enhancement (sp-2-oae2023-1-2023.pdf)


CENTER for INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL LAW (2024): Deep Trouble. The Risk of Offshore Carbon Capture and Storage (https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Deep-Trouble-The-Risks-of-Offshore-Carbon-Capture-and-Storage.pdf)


Clair Gough, Samira Garcia-Freites, Christopher Jones, Sarah Mander, Brendan Moore, Cristina Pereira, Mirjam Röder, Naomi Vaughan, Andrew Welfle (2018): Challenges to the use of BECCS as a keystone technology in pursuit of 1.5⁰C (Challenges to the use of BECCS as a keystone technology in pursuit of 1.5⁰C | Global Sustainability | Cambridge Core)


Climate Chance Committee (2020): The Sixth Carbon Budget Greenhouse gas removals (https://www.theccc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Sector-summary-GHG-removals.pdf)

East Coast Cluster (2024): East Coast Cluster (https://eastcoastcluster.co.uk/)


Flore Verbist, Jelle Meus, Jorge Andrés Moncada, Pieter Valkering, Erik Delarue (2024): Implications of the EU ETS on the level-playing field between carbon capture storage & utilisation


Klaus Wallmann (2023): Storing CO2 under the North Sea: opportunities and risks (Storing CO2 under the North Sea: opportunities and risks | Helmholtz Climate Initiative)


Marine Biodiversity Science Center (2024): The Silent Crisis: How Ocean Acidification is Devastating Marine Life (The Silent Crisis: How Ocean Acidification is Devastating Marine Life - Marine Biodiversity Science Center)


Author: Sarah Krause, Student of MBA Sustainability Management Class 2 (2024-2026)

 
 

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