CCS MYTHBUSTERSDISPELLING MYTHS AROUND CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE (CCS)

M YTH

MYT H

M Y TH

CCS is unproven.

CCS is unsafe.

CCS is too expensive.

FACTFAC T

FAC T

CCS technology has been in
use for more than 50 years,
and around 300 million tonnesof CO2 have already beensuccessfully
capturedandinjected underground.

The capture, transport, andstorage of CO2 is well regulated
and empirically proven to besafe.

The cost of CCS is quickly
declining as the breadth of
deployment increases andadditional policy and financialincentives are made available.

T H E P ROOF

T HE P RO O F

THE P RO O F• There are currently 29 CCS
facilities in operation aroundthe world, capturing and storing
40 million tonnes of CO2 peryear, which is more than theannual energy-related emissionsof many countries including
Denmark, Ireland and NewZealand.1• CO2 has been safely and reliablytransported in the United Statessince 1972 with zero fatalities
over its 50-year history.2• CCS has seen rapid growth anddecreased costs in recent years
thanks to new business models,and increased government andprivate sector R&D.

• There are commercial-scale CCS
facilities in operation across awide range of emission sources
including: gas processing,ethanol, fertiliser, steel andhydrogen production, as well as
in power generation.
• While there have been somewell-publicized setbacks
on individual CCS projects,
these issues are no different
than those facing otherlarge industrial projects andoverall CCS has proven to betechnically and economicallyviable.

• Even in in the unlikely event of aleak occurring during transport,
there is very little human healthrisk when pure CO2 is released
into ambient air because it is
not flammable or explosive, nor
is it toxic to humans unless therelease is catastrophic – very
rapid and in extremely highquantities.
• The likelihood of a leakoccurring once the CO2
is underground is very
low. According to theIntergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC), CO2
stored in appropriately selected
and managed geologicalreservoirs is 99% likely to remain
there for over 1,000 years.

• With more than 140 CCS facilities
currently in development
globally, costs are projectedto decline even further witheconomies of scale.
• The IPCC found that it wouldbe, on average, 138% more
expensive to reach global
climate goals without thedeployment of CCS.3

IEA Atlas of Energy
https://dualchallenge.npc.org/files/CCUS-Chap_6-030521.pdf
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2014: Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, R.K. Pachauri and L.A. Meyer (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, 151 pp.
1

2
3

CCS MYTHBUSTERS DISPELLING MYTHS AROUND CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE

M YTH

M Y TH

CCS only prolongs the life of fossil fuel industries
and delays the world from reaching global climategoals.

There is not enough space to safely store all theCO2 captured by CCS projects.

FACT

FAC T

CCS is a necessary tool for reducing the emissionsof fossil fuels already in use and putting the world
on a path to net-zero.

The world has more than enough capacity for CO2.

TH E P ROOF

THE P RO O F• CCS is an essential tool that we can deploy today toreduce emissions from the global fossil fuel power
fleet we already have. This is critical because without
CCS retrofit or early retirement, coal, and gas-fired
power stations will continue emitting CO2 at rates
that will consume 95% of the International Energy
Agency’s (IEA) Sustainable Development Scenario
carbon budget by 2050.

• According to the 2021 CO2 Storage Resource
Catalogue4, there are more than 14,000 gigatonnesof storage resources across the entire catalogue.
To put this into context, according to the IEA, global
energy-related CO2 emissions stood at just 33
gigatonnes in 2021.5• Even in a best-case scenario where the world
rapidly reduces fossil fuel consumption and halts
any additional development, the IPCC and the IEA
both agree that CCS will still play an important role inreaching climate targets because it is the only option
for decarbonising several non-energy sectors thatare fundamental to modern society, such as cement,steel, chemical, and fertiliser production.

• Storage resources can be found in almost everynation in the world, an important factor enabling theglobal deployment of CCS.

• CCS is also the main technology to underpinningcarbon removal from the atmosphere via direct air
capture (DAC) and Bioenergy with CCS (BECCS)
technologies.

45

https://CO2storageresourcecatalogue.com/
https://www.iea.org/reports/global-energy-review-2021/CO2-emissions

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