Well, I must say that this week, as at every one of our conferences, has just flown by – we are already well into day four of the 12th GHGT conference.
The final technical plenary was opened by Tim Dixon, who first introduced Emma ter Mors from Leiden University. Emma gave an insjosirt into the value of social science research for the deployment of CCS, and introduced a new fact (for me anyway), that less than 5% of people realise that the purpose of CCS is to ill actually mitigate global climate change. Social site characterisation is a key activity in any potential CCS project, as it enables stakeholders to learn more about the area in question and the communities in that area. It is absolutely crucial for operators to understand what concerns and values are important to the public near their potential site, so that these possible worries can be addressed and a plan can be envisaged that will not only allow the CCS project to proceed, but also to keep the public satisfied and happy with any plans.

“Social science research is key” – Emma ter Mors, Leiden University

The next speaker in this technical plenary was Greg Schnacke, from Denbury Resources here in Texas, who gave the audience a look into CO2-EOR (enhanced oil recovery), looking into the opportunities and challenges specifically here in the US. Greg noted that over 100million barrels of oil are produced in the US each year and made a key point – it serves a purpose (particularly in the USA) to regulate the use of CO2 in such EOR operations.

Following the talks this morning from Emma and Greg, Gary Rochelle (our co-host from UT) presented the GHGT-12 Steering Committee with a gift, recognising their hard work in organising and facilitating this conference. A big thanks from IEAGHG too, to all those who have be instrumental in the organisation of this successful conference here in the USA.

Don’t forget to stick around at GHGT-12 all day – we have a final discussion panel at 14:00, which will be chaired by Kelly Thambimuthu and involve panellists including Sally Benson, Olav Bolland, Sean McCoy, Jonas Helseth and Bill Spence, who will discuss the recent IPCC AR5. This panel will be followed by a brief closing session at 15:30, co-chaired by John Gale and Gary Rochelle.

We’d really appreciate your involvement in these closing sessions – as well as summaries and discussion from our experts, YOU, the audience, will be asked to contribute and really get involved in this interactive session.
I look forward to seeing many faces this afternoon!