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The Keeling Curve, named after its inventor Charles David Keeling, is a wonderfully simple communication tool. It shows in a very descriptive way the increase in atmospheric concentrations of CO2 since the 1950s.   What frightens me is the trend it is showing. Between 1960 and 2015, we see a steady increase in atmospheric CO2 concentrations fr...

I recently attended a workshop called "Delivering the Clean Growth Plan".For those that are not aware of the Clean Growth Plan this is a significant initiative that sets out the UK's agenda for decarbonising all sectors of the UK economy through the next decade. The UK Government plans to spend £2.5bn to support low carbon innovation. A core elemen...

Yesterday in Copenhagen saw the launch of a new initiative under the Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) on Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS). To mark the launch, a Side-event was held. This brought together governments and industry to discuss strategic public-private partnerships to encourage deployment of CCUS. Terje Soviknes, Minister of...

The report of the experts workshop was launched yesterday in conjunction with a high level round-table at the Ministerial meeting of Mission Innovation in Malmo, Sweden. This substantial report (nearly 300 pages) sets out thirty 'priority research directions' for advancing the performance and reducing the costs of CO 2 capture, utilisation and stor...

The 3 rd International Workshop on Offshore CCS took place on 3-4 May, organised by the Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG) in collaboration with IEAGHG and others, and hosted by the Research Council of Norway in Oslo, with support from SANEDI and CSLF. The aim of the workshop series is to facilitate sharing of knowledge and experiences among those wh...

The 2018 meeting for the "US-Norway Collaboration on CCS/CCUS" was on 2 May in Oslo. For the first time it was open to observers, inviting those attending the Offshore CCS Workshop which starts the following day (which we are involved in). It was interesting to get sight of the collaborations between these two countries which both have great CCUS R...

I was invited to give a talk to a local Green Party meeting who wanted a debate on CCS. This was the Stroud Green Party, Stroud being a town in the scenic Cotswold Hills known for its number of green councillors, independent spirit and high level of environmental awareness. They titled the debate "CCS – Essential for our future or a Trojan horse fo...

CTCN and the International CCS Knowledge Centre delivered a webinar on the 11 th April as update on the Carbon Capture and Storage facilities integrated in the Boundary Dam power plant in Canada. Emma Hannula, from CTCN, introduced Corwyn Bruce, who presented an overview of BD3 (Boundary Dam Unit 3), which is emitting 120-140 tCO 2 /GWh (as referen...

In the latest PTRC news-letter the Saskatchewan based research organisation announced that the week of 13 th – 16 th March marked the fourth seismic imaging run conducted over the Aquistore site. This technique is an integral part of the sites's monitoring and measurement programme. Since injection began in 2015 over 140,000 tonnes have been stored...

Once again, the UKCCSRC has held their biannual meeting, which took place in the University of Cambridge during 26-27 th March. UKCCSRC leads and coordinates a programme of underpinning research on all aspects of CCS in support of basic science and UK government efforts on energy and climate change. This initiative receives support from the EPSRC a...

  The STEMM-CCS project held its second annual meeting last week. This is an EU Horizon 2020 funded project that is developing environmental monitoring to test in-situ at a controlled release of CO 2 in the seabed at the Goldeneye location in the North Sea (see IEAGHG 2017-IP14). The project is coordinated by the UK's National Oceanography Cen...

  It has struck me when listening to astronauts that very often their concern for the earth's environment is much enhanced after their experiences. Perhaps because of their unique perspective from space looking back at this planet, I guess they see that this bright blue/green planet is a small oasis of life in the vastness of space. This was r...

News came out on 9 February that the US Budget Bill passed by congress and signed by the President into law included "FUTURE Act". This act contains an extension to the US tax credit for CCS and CCUS, known as 45Q. The existing version of 45Q provided a tax credit of $10 per tonne of CO 2 for anthropogenic CO 2 going to enhanced oil recovery, and $...

  The University of Texas held their biennial conference on CCUS, UTCCS-4 on the 30-31 January. This conference combines the Texas Carbon Management Program's amine-based capture research, the Gulf Coast Carbon Center's applied research in storage, and the Center for Frontiers of Subsurface Energy Security program's more fundamental research i...

The origin of the word 'sandwich' for an item of food may have originated from a story about John Montagu, the 4 th Earl of Sandwich. It is said that in approximately1762, he asked for meat to be served between slices of bread to avoid interrupting a gambling game. This story may have been rumour but soon people are reputed to have started ordering...

  The Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF) meetings in Abu Dhabi, UAE, were held from 4-6 December and concluded with the 7 th CSLF Ministerial Meeting. The CSLF is a government-to-government agreement on developing CCS, it started in 2003 and now has 25 member countries and the European Commission, and consists of a Technical Group, a...

  There will be much analysis into the details coming out of COP-23, but my short summary is as follows. Progress was made in general in the details of the 'rulebook' for the Paris Agreement, but there is a lot of work still to do. As a result it is suggested there may need to be an extra UNFCCC Parties meeting before COP-24 in order to be rea...

  CEMCAP held its second ECRA/CEMCAP workshop in Dusseldorf, Germany, on the 7 th November. CEMCAP is a collaborative project funded by the H2020 program which aims to increase the TRL of carbon capture systems applied to the cement industry and decrease the costs associated. Within the innovative concepts under development, we can find new co...

  On Saturday we reached the end of the first week of COP-23 , which is meeting in Bonn from 6 to 17 November. Whilst physically in Bonn, the formal host is Fiji, the first time a small island state has presided over a COP. Fiji asked that a focus of this COP to be on oceans, and we responded in our UNFCCC Side-event on the 7 th November (see ...

Yesterday was our Side-event, co-organised with The University of Texas, Bellona and CCSA. It was well attended, with around 150 attendees, and lots of good questions. The side event started with Dr Carol Turley OBE presenting an update on ocean acidification and its significant impacts on the planet; even the NDCs pledged so far will still cause a...