Six principles to guide large-scale carbon capture and storage development

Abstract

Despite considerable effort, there are few large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects operating commercially in the world today. The importance of CCS to the world's long-term decarbonization goals, however, has never been greater. The long-term outlooks of the United Nations and individual governments all place considerable reliance on the broad adoption of CCS technology for both power-generation and industrial applications. Recent support includes the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in the U.S., the U.K.'s Energy Security Bill, and the investments targeted in China's 14th Five-Year Plan. Nevertheless, a “reduction gap” remains between these contributions and governments' goals. We describe six general principles to guide the development of large-scale commercial CCS infrastructure to bridge the reduction gap by capitalizing on these opportunities. We assert that these principles are necessary to help CCS move into widespread large-scale use, and touch on steps that researchers, governments, regulators, and developers can take to encourage the adoption of this important technology. These principles include adopting a portfolio approach to development, encouraging the development of a clean-energy commons, recognizing the value of information and mitigating uncertainty, acknowledging the absence of firm legislative guidance, affirming the roles of multiple stakeholders, and ensuring that basic research can maintain a concurrent track with commercial development.