Assessing the Role of Carbon Capture and Storage in Mitigation Pathways of Developing Economies

Panagiotis Fragkos

doi:10.3390/en14071879

Abstract

The Paris Agreement has set out ambitious climate goals aiming to keep global warming well-below 2 °C by 2100. This requires a large-scale transformation of the global energy system based on the uptake of several technological options to reduce drastically emissions, including expansion of renewable energy, energy efficiency improvements, and fuel switch towards low-carbon energy carriers. The current study explores the role of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) as a mitigation option, which provides a dispatchable source for carbon-free production of electricity and can also be used to decarbonise industrial processes. In the last decade, limited technology progress and slow deployment of CCS technologies worldwide have increased the concerns about the feasibility and potential for massive scale-up of CCS required for deep decarbonisation. The current study uses the state-of-the-art PROMETHEUS global energy demand and supply system model to examine the role and impacts of CCS deployment in a global decarbonisation context. By developing contrasted decarbonisation scenarios, the analysis illustrates that CCS deployment might bring about various economic and climate benefits for developing economies, in the form of reduced emissions, lower mitigation costs, ensuring the cost efficient integration of renewables, limiting stranded fossil fuel assets, and alleviating the negative distributional impacts of cost-optimal policies for developing economies.

Highlights

Following the ratification of the Paris Agreement by most countries globally, there is increasing consensus on the need to decarbonise global and regional energy systems in the decades to ensure that global warming will not exceed 2 ◦C or 1.5 ◦C by the end of century [1]
The electricity sector is the first to decarbonise with coal-fired based generation rapidly declining by 2035, while emission reductions from demand sectors are mostly driven by energy efficiency improvements, electrification of energy services and fuel switch towards low-carbon energy carriers, including biofuels and hydrogen
Meeting the ambitious Paris Agreement goals requires an unprecedented transformation of the global energy system with large-scale uptake of renewable energy, acceleration of energy efficiency and fuel switch towards low-emission energy carriers

Summary

Introduction

Following the ratification of the Paris Agreement by most countries globally, there is increasing consensus on the need to decarbonise global and regional energy systems in the decades to ensure that global warming will not exceed 2 ◦C or 1.5 ◦C by the end of century [1]. Recent literature acknowledges that large-scale emission reductions can be achieved with the expansion of renewable energy, mostly solar PV and wind driven by technology cost reductions, combined with phase-out of coal and oil-fired power plants, energy efficiency in demand sectors and electrification of energy services [5,6] In this context, most studies confirm that Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technologies are required in scenarios achieving the ambitious Paris Agreement goals, in order to abate remaining emissions from the power generation and industrial sectors [7,8]. To drive the high expansion of CCS as required in future decarbonisation pathways, targeted policy support is required along with increased investment in Research and Development (R&D) to bring down the costs and improve the performance of currently immature CCS options [14]

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