20 years of carbon capture and storage

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies are expected to play a significant part in the global climate response. Following the ratification of the Paris Agreement, the ability of CCS to reduce emissions from fossil fuel use in power generation and industrial processes – including from existing facilities – will be crucial to limiting future temperature increases to "well below 2°C," as laid out in the Agreement. CCS technology will also be needed to deliver "negative emissions" in the second half of the century if these ambitious goals are to be achieved. CCS technologies are not new. This year is the 20th year of operation of the Sleipner CCS Project in Norway, which has captured almost 17 million tonnes of CO2 from an offshore natural gas production facility and permanently stored them in a sandstone formation deep under the seabed. Individual applications of CCS have been used in industrial processes for decades, and projects injecting CO2 for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) have been operating in the United States since the early 1970s. This publication reviews progress with CCS technologies over the past 20 years and examines their role in achieving 2°C and well below 2°C targets. Based on the International Energy Agency’s 2°C scenario, it also considers the implications for climate change if CCS was not a part of the response. And it examines opportunities to accelerate future deployment of CCS to meet the climate goals set in the Paris Agreement.