Sustainable development goals as means to motivate CO2 capture and storage in Indian geologic formations

Abstract

CO2 capture and storage (CCS) is increasingly being viewed as an important part of India's energy transitions by several practitioners. Ensemble modeling scenarios consistent with the Paris Agreement indicate that investments by the end of this decade towards CO2 transport and geologic storage would need to be $1–8 billion/year in India. These large-scale investments are accompanied by multiple technical, environmental, financial and societal interlinkages that interface with sustainable development. This review begins by summarizing some of these considerations in context of geologic CO2 storage. It then devotes individual sections to discussing how sustainable development goals (SDGs) could align with these projects and play a synergistic role for decarbonization. Four SDGs are particularly of interest. SDG-17 on global partnerships would be instrumental in facilitating low-cost financing for CCS investments. At the same time, other SDGs could be strategically used as co-benefits to CCS projects. These include SDG-8 on decent work, SDG-6 on clean water and SDG-9 on industry. We posit that it is not possible to study these SDG interlinkages in the global hypothetical. As such, this review takes a view of Indian geologic formations for CCS but also offers generalizable insights across other developing economies.