Speech by Joan Ruddock MP on carbon capture and storage to the Zero Emissions Platform Second General Assembly meeting, Paris - 3 October 2007
Thank you.
I don’t need to begin by telling you that climate change is the greatest challenge facing the world today. We all know it.
We are all experiencing changes. And we’re beginning to act.
Many countries, including the UK and EU partners, are working to reduce our own greenhouse gas emissions, and encourage action by others. Clearer goals and more imaginative policy measures are coming forward. International action is getting stronger and more coordinated.
But there is still a very long way to go.
A long way to go to avoid the effects of increasing drought and extreme rainfall. To avoid the devastation of coastal areas or island states. Or the risks to millions from famine and the spread of diseases like malaria.
In the UK, we are beginning to feel some adverse impacts - signs of what could happen with increasing frequency and severity as a result of climate change.
This summer, parts of England have been devastated by flooding. Businesses have been wrecked. Parents and children have had to abandon their homes for temporary shelters.
The floods have been incredibly unusual. But we all fear that this could happen more and more often as a result of climate change. Worldwide, the homes of up to 80 million people could be flooded each year by the end of this century.
Because of our past and present emissions, this is the uncertain future we face on our small and fragile planet.
Time is not on our side as we come to terms with the reality of climate change and what it will take to prevent it.
Without further action, global CO2 emissions by 2050 could be 55% higher than in 2003 – driven by the increasing use of coal for electricity generation, oil-based transport fuels and rapid economic growth in countries with large coal reserves.
The figures cry out for more to be done. ‘Business as usual’ is not an option if we are to avoid the worst impacts.
Common sense demands that delivering emissions reductions requires a particular focus on the energy supply sector. Globally some 41% of carbon dioxide emissions come from power generation. More and more countries need to rise to the challenge. Innovative measures need to be developed and implemented and technological opportunities recognised.
Carbon Capture and Storage is one such measure. The urgent need for more investment in low carbon technologies, including carbon capture and storage, is increasingly recognised. Today’s event is another step in that direction.
The development and deployment of low carbon technology was a common theme at the Major Economies Meeting in Washington last week.
But this deployment needs to be driven by significant scaling up of financial flows for higher cost technologies such as CCS.
Carbon finance resulting from mandatory emission caps for developed countries with extensive linking of trading schemes could significantly contribute towards this where favourable investment climates exist at the national level.
Similarly the work of the IFIs to create Clean Energy Investment Frameworks at the national and international level can have a significant role.
In the UK we aim to make a contribution through the £800m International Window of the Environment Transformation Fund. It will provide support for developing countries to create such investment frameworks to rapidly scale up investment into clean energy, sustainable forestry and climate resilient development and adaptation.
Today’s event provides us with an important opportunity. The chance to put more impetus behind one of the newest and most innovative technologies for the fossil fuel sector. The chance to underline our ambitious vision for CCS as a means of mitigating our emissions from the continuing use of fossil fuel for power generation.
The UK enthusiastically supports the forward looking proposals agreed by Heads of State at this year’s Spring Council. Especially the commitment to look at demonstration, at regulation for capture-ready power plants, and consideration of mandatory CCS – if possible – by 2020.
The message is clear. CCS is the only future for fossil fuel power generation. Industry, working together with Government, must urgently demonstrate that this technology works.
It is estimated that CCS technology has the potential – in the UK and worldwide – to reduce CO2emissions from power plants by more than 85%1 .
In fact, Sir Nicholas Stern’s Review of the Economics of Climate Change estimates that it has the potential to contribute up to 20% of global carbon dioxide mitigation by 2050.
So, the UK stands ready to help develop and support low carbon technologies, such as CCS, in achieving their full potential.
The processes involved in CCS are not novel, but we know that they have yet to be demonstrated together at the commercial scale.
So in the UK 2007 Energy White Paper we committed ourselves, to the next logical step for CCS – the construction of a full-scale demonstration plant.
We are launching a competition next month to select the project that we will support. When operational, by 2014, this plant will be one of the world’s first commercial-scale CCS power plants. This significant commitment by the UK Government shows the importance that we place not just on promoting new technology, but on finding solutions to tackle climate change on a global scale.
A successful outcome will help us to demonstrate affordability, how to manage any technological issues, and how to deliver major emissions reductions.
This is an exciting prospect, to which the UK is firmly committed. But we want CCS to be part of a much bigger strategy. And we are keen to play our part – together with EU partners – in stimulating greater interest and investment in a range of clean, low-carbon technologies and to accelerate their widest possible deployment.
To be successful the strategy needs to include a much greater EU-wide demonstration effort – endorsed by Heads of all the EU member states. And this is of course something that the Zero Emissions Platform is vigorously encouraging.
ZEP’s involvement is very welcome, even if there are some differences of opinion on the details. But the ambition is right, and I would like to see more member states supporting it.
For our part, the UK will continue to support the development and deployment of CCS – domestically and internationally. And our approach will focus on 3 areas of activity.
First, the development of a regulatory regime, which will manage the safe and reliable storage of CO2 and avoid any conflict with international agreements. This includes amendments to international conventions and working towards the inclusion of CCS in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and the Clean Development Mechanism.
Before this year it wasn’t possible to include the impact of CCS on the quantity of emissions countries reported to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Through our work with the International Panel on Climate Change, the UK has vigorously supported the development of new guidelines on accounting for greenhouse gas emissions. They now enable emissions from CCS projects to be reflected in future emissions reporting.
Our challenge today is to get the first of these demonstration plants up and running within the second Kyoto commitment period. And in the UK we have set a target date for 2011-14 for our commercial scale demonstration.
It’s an important step forward, because the formal recognition of CCS as a valid source of emissions reduction should help to incentivise international investment in CCS projects.
Second, the UK is continuing to support research and development and the demonstration of these technologies. The Government has already allocated £35m for the demonstration of Carbon Abatement Technologies, including Carbon Capture and Storage.
A further £20m a year is being provided to support clean energy technologies under our Technology Strategy Programme, which we’ve developed with our domestic industries. Carbon Abatement Technologies R&D receives about £4million of this funding and this is in addition to the significant support we will provide for our commercial-scale demonstration.
Third, through the G8, EU and bilaterally, the UK is playing its part in encouraging the deployment of CCS elsewhere – particularly in developing countries such as China and India with their rapidly growing energy needs.
One of the UK 's key international climate change objectives is to collaborate with these major emerging economies. Such an approach is vital – as we strive to accelerate progress on a global scale.
Projections show that the scale of coal-fired power generation in China and India could treble by 2030 – the IEA recently estimated that over 100GW of coal fired power plant was installed in 2006 in China alone.
But, if we can capture and store the carbon which will be produced, it would have a major impact on the global greenhouse threat.
Demonstration must be followed by rapid deployment to counter this threat. Being prepared to move more rapidly to demonstration in China and India could help build Government and Institutional capacity.
A shared sense of urgency and a strong international effort is required to drive research, development and deployment of new and existing low-carbon technologies over the next generation. Strong leadership is the only way to secure the shift in investment needed to put us on a low-carbon pathway over the next 20 years.
Progress has been made. Look at the ongoing work of the EU-China Near-Zero Emissions Coal Initiative signed in 2005. This initiative, supported by the UK and the European Commission, has the objective of demonstrating carbon capture and storage for power generation in China by 2020.
These initiatives go to the heart of the global interest in energy security and climate security. And we want to continue working – with increased involvement from EU partners – to enhance this collaboration with developing countries. Given the potential, CCS demonstration in China should now be placed on the same strategic footing as demonstration in Europe.
In this century, without action to reduce emissions, the earth’s temperature is likely to rise significantly, with seriously damaging environmental, social and economic impacts - locally and globally.
Cutting the emissions of carbon dioxide from all sectors of the economy is vital to avoid dangerous climate change. The more greenhouse gases that are released into the atmosphere, the greater the potential for millions of people to suffer.
Action is needed now and CCS is an important opportunity for further progress.
This event is a chance to remind ourselves that the stakes are high, but the solutions are often in our own hands. Let’s embrace the contribution of low-carbon technologies and give the necessary lead. Let’s meet the challenges together.
Thank you.
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4 October 2007