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On 8 March 2022, the IEA published their flagship report "Global Energy Review: CO2 Emissions in 2021". The report provides a rather bleak summary of the missed opportunities for a green and sustainable recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic so far. The key messages are the following: Energy-related CO2 emissions grew to 36.3 Gt in 2021, a record high...

Food production is expected to increase due to global population growth and, consequently, fertilizer production will be essential for global food security. Currently, the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions linked to fertilizer production are approximately 400 Mt/year (over 1% of global energy-related CO2 emissions) with a predicted growth to 550 Mt/ye...

Decarbonising the economy through CCUS relies not only on viable methods to capture CO2 but also efficient usage and/or storage of that CO2. In some instances, e.g. where large transport distances are required, or for countries which do not have large geological storage resources, utilising the captured CO2, or carbon capture and utilisation (CCU),...

Research, development, demonstration, and deployment of advanced solvents is at the forefront of decarbonising the fossil fuel combustion sectors with the aim of making solvent-based CO2 capture more competitive in a net zero economy.Considering the extensive research in solvent design and development, a rapid and reliable screening protocol is imp...

The aim of this study is to provide a transparent framework to evaluate the potential (in terms of sequestered and displaced carbon), and economics (in terms of cost of carbon avoided and removed) of a non-exhaustive selection of NETs pathways. Ecosystem and socio-economic impacts associated with their deployment is also quantified. The study sets ...

This study reviewed the risk of induced seismicity at CO2 storage sites. The phenomenon has multiple causes including waste water disposal, geothermal energy and mining. Natural seismicity is also a widespread occurrence and can detected in the same regions as industrial activities associated with induced seismicity. Consequently the detection of a...

The University of Texas at Austin held its 6th conference on carbon capture and storage from 25th to 27th January, in a fully virtual format. This conference combined the research and other activities from the Gulf Coast Carbon Centre, the Texas Carbon Management Programme, the UT Energy Institute, and the Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Eng...

Direct air carbon capture and storage (DACCS) has some advantages over other negative emissions technologies (NETs). NETs interacting with biomass, such as afforestation, soil carbon storage and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), require significant water and arable land. Other chemical NETs, such as enhanced weathering, risk changi...

The long-term, secure storage of CO2 depends on injection and retention within well characterised geological reservoirs, such as saline aquifers or depleted oil and gas fields (DO&GFs).The potential CO2 storage capacity in saline formations is well understood, and the objective of this IEAGHG study was to specifically focus on a set of storage ...

A range of carbon dioxide capture technologies have been developed, including amine-based routes and calcium looping methods, some of which are now considered to be at technology readiness level (TRL) 9. These technologies have been deployed across the world in large-scale carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) projects, permanently storing...

CO2 can be transformed into a wide range of value-added products, acting as an alternative carbon source to fossil carbon. These CO2 'conversion' utilisation routes are of increasing interest due to considerations related to climate change, avoidance of fossil fuels, and the circular economy. Carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) uses CO2 captured f...

Glasgow Climate Pact  In the late hours of Saturday the 13th November the 197 countries at COP26 agreed on a new agreement to build upon the Paris Agreement, called the Glasgow Climate Pact. In this package of decisions there will be much detailed analysis by many to come, I provide a brief summary from my perspective here. From our mitigation...

There were significant side-events on CCS in the second week. The first was organised by the Global CCS Institute, on CCS in the Green Transition. On the panel was Guloren Turan of the Institute, Professor Jim Skea, IPCC Co-chair of WGIII, Ruth Herbert of CCSA, Jonas Helseth of Bellona, and myself. Guloren presented the Institute's recent Global St...

On the very day (1st November 2021) the British Prime Minster, The Rt Hon Boris Johnson welcomed 120 head of governments at the COP26 in Glasgow for the last chance to keep the 1.50C alive, I took part in the Shell Catalysts & Technologies webinar on accelerating a sustainable recovery with a focus on hydrogen technologies. While the likes of y...

With the backdrop of the veteran naturalist and filmmaker Sir David Attenborough's powerful speech at the COP26, the Head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Fatih Birol, tweeted that, if the COP26 climate pledges were met in full, and on time, global warming could be limited to 1.8°C by 2100, but implementing them will need higher ambition, ...

On Friday inside COP26 the US DOE used their pavilion (with the impressive NASA Hyperwall) to launch two new initiatives on carbon dioxide removal (CDR). Secretary Granholm announced a new Energy Earthshot goal on CDR. The objective is to stimulate removal and durable storage of gigatons of CO2 for less than $100/t this decade. This is the US ...

The "Net-Zero World" initiative was launched at COP26 by US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and US Special Envoy John Kerry. This new initiative is intended to accelerate global energy system decarbonisation. It will support partner countries to achieve net zero in their energy systems. It will develop technical roadmaps and then fund technic...

Scotland welcomed the countries of the world with windy but dry weather. The previous day, a severe storm in southern England had disrupted travel to Glasgow for many delegates, with many trees down and power outages, and reminding them of the impacts of more severe weather events due to climate change. COP26 started with the World Leaders' Summit....

The London Convention and the London Protocol are the global marine treaties that protect the marine environment. We previously reported on the CCS amendments and the recent 2019 Resolution to allow export of CO2 (detailed in IEAGHG report 2020-TR/02). For the annual meeting of the Parties in 2021, LC43, the CCS agenda item and the Marine Geoengine...

The UK government has announcement the two projects to move forwards towards development and operation by 2025. Details on all UK clusters were presented in the CCSA's CCUS 2021 Conference last week. Here are summaries of these significant developments. Today Greg Hands, Minister State for Energy, Clean Growth and Climate Change announced that the ...