UN group discusses role of fossil with CCS for secure electricity grids in the build-up to COP28

Since 2014, as part of my role as UKCCSRC Director, I have been participating in meetings of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Group of Experts on Cleaner Electricity, as an independent expert on CCS and latterly also as a vice-chair.

The UNECE was set up in 1947 as one of the five regional commissions of the United Nations. Its major aim is to promote pan-European economic integration. The UNECE includes 56 member States in Europe, North America and Asia, but all interested United Nations member States may participate in the work of UNECE. Over 70 international professional organizations and other non-governmental organizations also take part in UNECE activities.? The UNECE is based in the Palais des Nations, the former League of Nations site, in Geneva.

In November 2006, at its fifteenth Session, the UNECE’s Committee on Sustainable Energy recognized the importance of encouraging investment in the power sector while ensuring that it is done so in an environmentally sustainable manner. To carry out this work, the Committee created the Ad Hoc Group of Experts on Cleaner Electricity from Coal and Other Fossil Fuels, now known as the Group of Experts on Cleaner Electricity Systems. The?Group of Experts provides a forum for an intergovernmental dialogue on investment and regulation for the promotion of cleaner electricity production between governmentally appointed experts, complemented by the participation of representatives from the electric power industry and other related industries, as well as the international financial sector and relevant international organizations.

Clearly CCS has a potentially major role in ensuring the environmentally sustainability of electricity supplies, in particular when the target is not just a marginal reduction in CO2 emissions but net zero.? Most recently, CCS has figured prominently in a paper on ‘Transitioning to net-zero emissions power systems-common principles for reliability of supply’ prepared for the Group of Experts on Cleaner Electricity Systems’ nineteenth session in October 2023.? While supporting a transition to electricity grids that are able to use much greater amounts of variable renewable energy, this report also noted that:

"Since it is difficult to imagine the electricity grid operating reliably without some amount of available on-demand ‘emergency’ power generation, which will most likely be based on fossil fuel, it is critical that advances in direct air carbon capture and storage as well as point-source carbon capture (use) and sequestration technologies be aggressively pursued, since engineered capture of the emitted CO2 from the atmosphere and its permanent, safe sequestration may be the cheapest and most flexible way of achieving net zero carbon footprint of the dispersed and infrequent use of fossil fuels..."

Participation in the debate in UN bodies, such as the UNECE, on the difficult questions around keeping the world functioning, hopefully giving people improved lives with a still-growing global population, while still meeting the incredibly tight timetable that the climate is imposing to reach net zero emissions, is part of raising the profile of CCS in the global process leading up to COP28.? Despite CCS being essential to put the ‘net’ into net zero, if its role is not explicitly recognised in COP communiques then investor uncertainty will remain and hinder the necessary rapid deployment.

In a letter written this month the COP President said:

"We urge all companies and in particular those in heavy emitting and energy sectors to accelerate their decarbonization activities, setting strong 2030 targets on the way to net-zero. The energy sector needs to play an important role to support other sectors to decarbonize by dramatically increasing their investments in clean energies, including carbon capture, utilization, and storage, and low-carbon hydrogen. They also have a responsibility to eliminate methane emissions from the production of fossil fuels by 2030, as well as implement best practices by 2030 to more than halving scope 1 and 2 emission intensity, collectively."

If the COP28 communique also includes, for the first time at a COP, an explicit reference to CCS then the very significant investments referred to above will be very much more likely.

(This is a version of the October 2023 UKCCSRC Newsletter introduction – anyone can register to receive this newsletter, which contains many more items of interest to all members of the UK and global CCS community, here https://ukccsrc.ac.uk/membership/ )