IEAGHG was lead organiser of the only UNFCCC Side-event at COP24 on CCS, in collaboration with the University of Texas, International CCS Knowledge Centre, Bellona and CCSA. Held on the 6th December, the event was titled "Can Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) decarbonise industry in developed and developing countries?". Being the only UNFCCC Side-event on CCS, we tried to be both relevant to this particular COP and cover as many new developments as possible. Hence it was structured in two discussion panels, Decarbonising Industry and Developing Countries.



The scene-setting was provided by Thelma Krug, Vice-Chair of IPCC, on what the IPCC 1.5 report says on CCS and BECCS, particularly for industrial applications. I added that the 1.5 report states "removing BECCS and CCS from the portfolio of available options significantly raises mitigation costs".



A theme of COP24 from the Polish host is a 'Just Transition' for workers in industries potentially undergoing change due to climate change. So we had a trade union perspective from Brian Kohler of IndustriALL ,on why they support CCS.



We also had the exciting update from Mike Monea of the International CCS Knowledge Centre on the Shand Feasibility Study, showing significant results such as the capital cost reduction of 67%, cost of capture being USD45/tCO2, and water neutral (very important in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals). Mike also discussed the relevance to Poland with its high coal use.



We had presentations from Heidelberg Cement from Manuela Ojan, and Jonas Helseth of Bellona and ZEP gave the ZEP perspective on CCS for EU industry.



Katherine Romanak of University of Texas gave a perspective on learning from the US work on demonstrating security of large-scale injection projects and encouraging developing countries to learn from this and also to use climate funds to support their capacity building. A very interesting presentation on the potential for CCS in Trinidad and Tobago was provided from Professor Andrew Jupiter of the University of West Indies (and former Ministry of Energy).



The Right Honorable Mark Field, UK Minister for Asia and Pacific, concluded the event, with why the UK supports CCS, including being a very significant international donor to developing countries, and a nice summary of the Global CCUS Summit held last week in Edinburgh (see IEAGHG Information Paper 2018-IP37).



As well as chairing, I presented on the need for CCS, IEAGHG's ongoing work on CCS and Sustainable Development Goals, and highlighted the IEAGHG Summer Schools as one of the free ways to build capacity in countries considering CCS for future NDCs.



I was very pleased that IISD chose to cover us, which indicates how relevant we were as they have so many Side-events to potentially cover. See their coverage at http://enb.iisd.org/climate/cop24/enbots/#event-2 . The Side-event was live streamed by UNFCCC outside COP, and the ppts will be available later via UNFCCC.



Judging by the room being near its capacity of 200, the twitter traffic and the IISD coverage, it seems a well-received and successful event to inform COP24 delegates. Thank you to all collaborators and presenters, and especially to the audience. 

Left: The Panel (Photo Courtesy of Carol Turley, PML) / Right: The Rt Hon Mark Field (Photo Courtesy of Beth Hardy, International CCS Knowledge Centre )