A new study finds that the potential for carbon capture and storage is much more limited, by a factor of five or six, than the capacity projected by the United Nations to fight climate change. The U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates a maximum of 30 gigatons of carbon dioxide can be trapped underground by 2050. But the study by researchers at Imperial College London finds a best-case scenario of just 5-6 gigatons. The study says the IPCC estimates are unfeasible and argues that projections, particularly regarding China’s future carbon capture, are greatly inflated. “The existing models assess the use of CO2 storage based on very loosely constrained limitations,” lead author Yuting Zhang told Mongabay by phone, adding that some of these models simply evaluated how much CO2 the Earth’s subsurface was able to hold. “[Our study] provides a clearer pathway for policymakers, as well as the business sector and modeling community, to start organizing and aligning their actions around this benchmark,” Zhang said. To date, more than $83 billion has been invested into carbon capture and storage (CCS) globally. A total of 41 commercial projects are now running worldwide; almost all are operated by large fossil fuel companies. An estimated 83% of the world’s current CCS capacity features compressed CO2 injected into the ground via pipelines to extract oil, a process called enhanced oil recovery. Roughly 40% of that carbon leaks back into the atmosphere in the process, Mark Jacobson, a civil and environmental engineering professor at Stanford…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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