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CCS cannot significantly reduce tar sands emissions - WWF report
Projects / Policy, Oct 30 2009 (Carbon Capture Journal)
- A study produced by The Co-operative Financial Services and WWF-UK claims to debunk the idea that CCS will significantly counter the high levels of greenhouse gases emitted in the production of oil from tar sands deposits in Alberta, Canada.
The report, 'CCS in the Alberta oil sands – a dangerous myth,' examines the potential for CCS to prevent CO2 from entering the atmosphere as a result of tar sands production and concludes that the process could not possibly achieve what has been claimed.
The study says that:
* Whilst the amount of CO2 emitted during production needs to be reduced by around 85% to make tar sands oil comparable with conventional oil, even the most optimistic forecasts for CCS see production emissions reduced by 10 to 30% at selected locations by 2020 and 30 to 50% across the industry by 2050.
* Even under the most optimistic scenarios for the application of CCS, the projected production emissions from tar sands developments would be greater than the whole of Canada’s 2050 carbon budget were it to reduce emissions by 80% compared with 1990 levels, as the climate science requires.
* The maximum potential of CCS would be insufficient to reduce lifecycle emissions of tar sands oil to levels needed to meet emerging international low carbon fuel standards such as those in California and the EU.
Paul Monaghan, Head of Social Goals at the Co-operative Financial Services said, "Last year we published a report which found that Canada’s tar sands could increase atmospheric CO2 by more than 10 parts per million, which would take us right to the edge of runaway climate change. The industry’s response was that CCS would address this threat. Today’s report shows that even the most wildly optimistic scenarios for the development of CCS fail to bring emissions down to those of today’s conventional fossil fuels."
