The IEAGHG team managed to grab Sue Hovorka (BEG at The University of Texas at Austin) in a brief moment of calm amongst the busyness of the 12th GHGT conference for a quick catch-up. Let’s see how Sue is feeling on day one of the event…

Sue started by noting that it’s a huge pleasure to have the event kicked off and with such a large number of attendees (with over 1140 registered attendees at the time of this blog entry!). Sue is especially happy and proud of the fantastic technical programme that we have here at the meeting and is looking forward to experiencing as many talks as she can, remarking that the conference is going very smoothly and successfully so far!

Sue is most excited about (aside from the BBQ at the Salt Lick on Weds evening!) the timing of this meeting in the US and especially here, as there are so many long awaited programmes that are really moving onto the next step. The US Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships (US RCSPs) will have a panel here at the conference, giving updates, showing their data, results, interesting facts, and most crucially showcasing the success of these projects! Sue recognised the importance of showcasing our successes as the media need to recognise that what we have is GLOBAL success stories, and here at the GHGT conference is a great time and place to do so. Not just the USRCSPs, but Boundary Dam, Kemper County, among others... It’s not been easy but they all show that it can be done, with the regular application of commercially available best practices. As Sue agrees, I think we can all agree that ‘this meeting is exciting!’

Sue really does feel that CCS is moving forward, albeit perhaps somewhat slower than we’d like at times, but this is the important message of this meeting. These projects are big things, they take a while to ‘ripen’ but they all show unequivocal progress.

Sue suggested that perhaps not much has been seen over the last couple of years, as CCS is a longer art. As Sue said, ‘many seeds that were planted a decade ago are now starting to flower, and sometimes even bear fruit. The hot news now is that the beans are up and we can begin to harvest!’