CCS partnerships: Notes from day three of Regional Carbon Sequestration Conference

This is the fourth in a series of posts from ACCCE’s National Communications Director, Steve Gates, who attended the Regional Carbon Sequestration Conference in Pittsburgh from Nov. 16-19, 2009.

Last summer, the International Energy Agency (IEA) laid out in stark terms what climate change might look like in four decades: Without carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) and other emission reducing measures like efficiency and increased renewable power, CO2 emissions could rise by 130 percent in 2050.

What that means in practical terms: Such an emission increase would lead to the global temperature rising by several degrees within the next 40 years. We heard this first-hand from IEA Analyst Brendan Beck this past Wednesday at the Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships Annual Review Meeting in Pittsburgh.

To significantly reduce global emissions, according to the IEA, 100 CCS power plants must come online by 2020; that number must be 3,400 by 2050.

Why the colossal jump? The IEA’s 2009 roadmap on CCS says it all: “CCS is the only technology available to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from large-scale fossil fuel usage in fuel transformation, industry and power generation.”

To that end, Beck came to Pittsburgh to applaud U.S. efforts, as well as to reinforce the case that regional partnerships are vital to bring CCS technology forward.

That’s what this conference was all about: Seven sequestration partnerships across the U.S., encompassing 43 states and hundreds of organizations. They were all here—researchers, scientists, government officials, oil and gas companies, utilities and even conservationists—to move CCS forward and help mitigate increasing greenhouse gas emissions.

Be sure the check out our interview with J. Alexandra Hakala, an official with the National Energy Technology Laboratory. She expressed confidence that the U.S. can hit the 2020 goal to bring commercial-level CCS technologies online.

We may have left town, but there are still plenty of highlights from Pittsburgh left to see. See them all at Factuality.org.