Reports & Papers
Summary
In 1992, negotiators from over 150 countries met in Rio de Janeiro and signed the Framework Convention on Climate Change, a major global effort to reduce the threat of global climate change. In the ensuing seven years, a range of options have emerged: these range from various economic incentives to ambitious investments in research and development to deploy a new more of energy producing and consuming technology. One of most promising of these options is carbon management, the capture and storage of carbon dioxide, either through biological methods such as increased forestation or through technological means. The potential of these options may be considerable. Experts predict that the planet can store between 10,000-20,000 Gigatons of carbon, enough to hold more than a thousand years of human-caused carbon dioxide emissions. If this potential is to be realized, significantly more attention must be given to developing and deploying these options.
In June 1999, the John F. Kennedy School''s Environment and Natural Resources Program and its Science, Technology and Public Policy Program jointly hosted a workshop of experts, focusing on the potential, pitfalls and policy responses appropriate for fostering biological and technological carbon sequestration. Among the 44 participants were some of the leading experts, including leaders in the fields of biology, earth science, economics and public policy. The purpose of the workshop was to delineate what the US and world community need to do in order to dramatically increase its understanding of carbon capture and sequestration options and uses.
Carbon management is split into two distinct areas: biological and technological. Biological sequestration uses terrestrial and oceanic biomass to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in trees, plants and other organic matter. In contrast, technological methods use mechanical or chemical means of separating carbon or carbon dioxide from fossil fuels, then putting the captured carbon in long-term storage areas, ranging from old oil and gas wells to deep ocean formations.
Although workshop participants differed on many particulars, several broad themes emerged. They were:
- Commitment to Carbon Abatement Without real national commitment to carbon abatement, and a regulatory or financial mechanism for encouraging it, no large push to ad-vance carbon sequestration options will occur. Little money is spent on carbon sequestration options by U.S. government or industry, compared to other carbon abatement activities. Despite recent evidence to the contrary, there is a general impression that carbon management is plagued by prohibitively high costs and vast technological uncertainties. These concerns are often exaggerated and new evidence is slowly dispelling them.
Resolving Uncertainty Scientific, technological, environmental, safety and economic uncertainty exists. There are significant remaining problems, and these problems require increased interdisciplinary research in order to solve them. Scientific uncertainty and lack of basic data may make the potential terrestrial biological sequestration, currently the most discussed option, less attractive in the long-run than many boosters imply. On the other hand, technological sequestration may have environmental and safety impacts that must be explored, understood, and alleviated, before a robust program can be implemented.
Public Involvement and Education Important environmental, social and safety issues are not fully resolved, and public mistrust surrounding these issues could stall investments in carbon sequestration, whether or not the suspicion is warranted. One demonstration project off of Hawaii was recently cancelled because of local protest about possible environmental impacts. Because these carbon management options have both large rewards and unknown risks, it is important that the public understands the tradeoffs and are able to make intelligent choices among them. Without public support, the potential, no matter how vast, will not be realized.
Demonstration Projects Applied data and information is badly needed, and more demonstration projects should be supported. Initially, it will be important to concentrate on projects with other benefits, such as coal-bed methane capture/carbon dioxide storage projects that will provide both energy and carbon sequestration benefits and costs.
Greater Government Funding If even a fraction of the carbon sequestration potential is realized, it will be an enormous aid to reducing greenhouse gas concentrations. Right now, the government spends no more than $30 million on these options. This sum is far less than is spent on energy efficient or renewable energy, two other approaches touted as technological responses to the to the climate problem. Private concerns will only be willing and able to capture individual benefits, thus they will tend to invest less and on different options than those that might be most beneficial for society as a whole.
