Not everyone is convinced this is a good idea.
The controversy surrounding CCS largely hinges on whether it represents a genuine effort to tackle climate change or a form of greenwashing. “Greenwashing” refers to any attempt by companies to appear environmentally friendly without making significant changes to their underlying practices. The fact that this project is largely supported by oil companies is already reason enough to be skeptical, given the long-term disinformation practices many such companies have engaged with in previous decades.
Critics argue that CCS allows industries to continue emitting vast amounts of CO2. They only need to capture a fraction of their emissions to meet regulatory requirements. For example, while the Northern Lights project is impressive in scale, the 1.5 million tons of CO2 it can store annually is a drop in the ocean compared to the 33 billion tons of CO2 the world emits each year. Even for Norway, it’s only around 4% of the country’s CO2 emissions.
Moreover, CCS does nothing to reduce the demand for fossil fuels, which remain a major driver of global emissions. By providing a way for oil and gas companies to continue extracting and selling fossil fuels while capturing some of the resulting emissions, the technology arguably delays the shift toward cleaner energy sources. As a result, some environmentalists view it as a distraction from the urgent need to decarbonize the global economy.
“Northern Lights is ‘greenwashing’,” said the head of Greenpeace Norway, Frode Pleym, noting that the project was run by oil companies.
“Their goal is to be able to continue pumping oil and gas. CCS, the electrification of platforms and all of these kinds of measures are used by the oil industry in a cynical way to avoid doing anything about their enormous emissions,” he said.
What does this mean for climate change?
For now, not so much. It could be a turning point. We could be looking at this as a historic moment a century from now. But the main requirement at the moment is emitting less, not storing carbon dioxide.
Ultimately, the success of CCS will depend on whether we can scale it up quickly and cost-effectively. As governments around the world tighten regulations and the price of carbon rises, the economic case for CCS may improve. But, for now, the technology remains a costly and non-essential piece of the climate puzzle.
Yet Norway’s experiment in carbon capture will serve as an important test site for this technology. In the following years, we’ll soon see whether this this technology can live up to its promise — or whether it’s a costly distraction from the deeper changes needed to address the climate crisis.
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Publish date : 2024-09-30 11:51:00
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