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Carbon capture is not the answer to climate change

Carbon capture and storage is the nascent technology which intends to trap the CO2 previously emitted by power stations and pipe it deep into the bowels of the earth. For its supporters, it is our last, best chance to avert the looming catastrophe of global warming. They say that the earth has room to safely store 65 years worth of CO2 emissions, that oil companies have been burying the gas for years, and that the price of CCS – an estimated £100 per household per year – is not much to pay for saving the world.

But not everybody agrees, and others maintain that the energy industry is taking our governments for a ride. The critics insist that CCS uses more and more fossil fuels, that we should be concentrating on renewable energy sources instead, and that there’s no guarantee that the storage technology will even work. Then there are the risks – can we really be sure that the underground CO2 will never leak?

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