EU summit set to agree carbon capture projects
Source: Reuters
By Jeremy Lovell LONDON, March 2 (Reuters) - European Union leaders will approve a series of carbon capture and storage projects at a summit next week in the search for quick solutions to the global warming crisis, an official said on Friday. With fossil fuels like coal expected to continue to play a major role in power generation, world leaders and scientists are seeking ways to cut the resulting greenhouse gas emissions -- including capturing the carbon before it enters the atmosphere. "We will announce a major programme of commercial scale demonstrations of the technology that allows you to bury the carbon emissions from burning coal in the ground for millions of years," said a senior British Foreign Office official who asked not to be named. "The challenge is to demonstrate the technologies at scale so we can reduce the cost of them and bring them rapidly into widespread use," he said, noting a European Commission proposal for 12 such projects expected to be approved by the summit. Power generation produces around one-third of greenhouse gas emissions that scientists say will raise global temperatures by between 1.8 and 4.0 degrees Celsius this century, bringing floods, famines and putting millions of lives at risk. Although coal is one of the dirtiest fuels, it is so abundant it is expected to remain prevalent for generations. China, for example, is building a coal-fired power station every week to fuel its 10-percent-a-year economic growth. While there are doubts about carbon capture and storage because of the need to find enough geological structures like old oil fields to hold the gasses, politicians like the idea because it would mean business can continue as usual. The Foreign Office official said the projects would be spread around Europe -- and also maybe in places like China -- to ensure wide corporate, scientific and political cooperation. The hope is they will have produced results by 2015, and that by 2020 all new coal- and gas-fuelled power stations in Europe would have to be fitted with the technology. "My sense ... is that there is now a political consensus across Europe that we have to do this," the official said. "If you haven't got a coal strategy you haven't got a climate strategy and that is understood at a political level." The March 8-9 EU summit in Brussels will also agree to cut EU carbon emissions by 20 percent by 2020 -- or up to 30 percent if there is wider participation -- and aim to get 20 percent of all electricity from renewable sources by that date. The leaders will agree to reduce overall energy consumption by 20 percent through increased energy efficiency and that 10 percent of all road fuels should be biofuels -- also by 2020. (Additional reporting by Adrian Croft)
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