Zürcher Nachrichten - Climate maths 'doesn't add up' without carbon capture: COP28 chief

EUR -
AED 3.984634
AFN 77.56712
ALL 99.127792
AMD 424.348269
ANG 1.9421
AOA 994.80399
ARS 1163.850307
AUD 1.724277
AWG 1.955435
AZN 1.84319
BAM 1.964894
BBD 2.189735
BDT 131.789976
BGN 1.954188
BHD 0.408889
BIF 3174.259686
BMD 1.084846
BND 1.457345
BOB 7.493684
BRL 6.174294
BSD 3.791537
BTN 92.699048
BWP 15.010474
BYN 3.549127
BYR 21262.983544
BZD 2.178382
CAD 1.554102
CDF 3114.593484
CHF 0.957911
CLF 0.027022
CLP 1036.939387
CNY 7.884769
CNH 7.897935
COP 4506.711059
CRC 544.821651
CUC 1.084846
CUP 28.748422
CVE 110.708861
CZK 24.942826
DJF 192.799023
DKK 7.461441
DOP 68.69784
DZD 145.046656
EGP 54.860122
ERN 16.272691
ETB 140.867604
FJD 2.519556
FKP 0.839492
GBP 0.836509
GEL 2.993805
GGP 0.839492
GHS 16.765734
GIP 0.839492
GMD 78.247558
GNF 9383.574349
GTQ 8.36766
GYD 227.763243
HKD 8.443102
HNL 27.734028
HRK 7.530571
HTG 141.513386
HUF 403.884833
IDR 18137.082926
ILS 4.016192
IMP 0.839492
INR 92.813311
IQD 1419.303152
IRR 45676.669083
ISK 144.340882
JEP 0.839492
JMD 169.594287
JOD 0.76914
JPY 162.827792
KES 140.213378
KGS 93.877209
KHR 4332.047762
KMF 494.139489
KPW 976.382987
KRW 1596.067609
KWD 0.33449
KYD 0.902322
KZT 546.155529
LAK 23469.732242
LBP 96901.234981
LKR 319.672018
LRD 216.908012
LSL 19.946564
LTL 3.203268
LVL 0.656213
LYD 5.219212
MAD 10.446638
MDL 19.481946
MGA 5066.424805
MKD 61.773965
MMK 2277.645242
MNT 3776.765703
MOP 8.693874
MRU 43.065507
MUR 49.495241
MVR 16.752302
MWK 1878.820351
MXN 22.180926
MYR 4.812883
MZN 69.305178
NAD 19.946564
NGN 1667.293007
NIO 39.879762
NOK 11.291355
NPR 148.570907
NZD 1.892415
OMR 0.41766
PAB 1.084846
PEN 3.980195
PGK 4.437134
PHP 62.094626
PKR 303.356658
PLN 4.200668
PYG 8621.05341
QAR 3.949115
RON 4.999724
RSD 117.693617
RUB 91.701374
RWF 1538.711624
SAR 4.068095
SBD 9.221526
SCR 15.713848
SDG 651.412459
SEK 10.754909
SGD 1.457422
SHP 0.852519
SLE 24.767132
SLL 22748.681451
SOS 618.7805
SRD 39.98303
STD 22454.123957
SVC 9.492628
SYP 14105.677435
SZL 19.946564
THB 37.086899
TJS 11.82506
TMT 3.794538
TND 3.366507
TOP 2.612129
TRY 41.140982
TTD 7.341352
TWD 36.069618
TZS 2870.619072
UAH 44.756125
UGX 3959.2121
USD 1.084846
UYU 45.72442
UZS 14006.747164
VES 75.49409
VND 27816.269894
VUV 133.843548
WST 3.077784
XAF 658.852652
XAG 0.032126
XAU 0.000347
XCD 2.937115
XDR 0.816598
XOF 658.852652
XPF 119.331742
YER 266.878728
ZAR 20.438512
ZMK 9764.917148
ZMW 30.531693
ZWL 349.320001
  • CMSD

    0.0100

    22.83

    +0.04%

  • GSK

    -0.2300

    37.64

    -0.61%

  • RBGPF

    0.0000

    68

    0%

  • SCS

    0.1400

    11.46

    +1.22%

  • NGG

    0.0000

    65.78

    0%

  • AZN

    -0.3800

    72.22

    -0.53%

  • CMSC

    0.0600

    22.5

    +0.27%

  • RIO

    -0.3300

    59.9

    -0.55%

  • BP

    0.0000

    33.81

    0%

  • RYCEF

    -0.2700

    9.78

    -2.76%

  • BTI

    -0.8500

    40.25

    -2.11%

  • RELX

    0.3100

    50.98

    +0.61%

  • VOD

    -0.1500

    9.12

    -1.64%

  • JRI

    0.0600

    13.04

    +0.46%

  • BCE

    -0.9600

    21.82

    -4.4%

  • BCC

    3.1600

    102.07

    +3.1%

Climate maths 'doesn't add up' without carbon capture: COP28 chief
Climate maths 'doesn't add up' without carbon capture: COP28 chief / Photo: Karim SAHIB - AFP

Climate maths 'doesn't add up' without carbon capture: COP28 chief

The Emirati oil chief leading this year's UN climate talks said Wednesday the world must get "serious" about new emission-capturing technology, rather than focussing only on replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy.

Text size:

Sultan Al Jaber said renewables such as solar and wind "cannot be the only answer", especially in the steel, cement and aluminium industries, where emissions are particularly hard to reduce.

While major oil producers Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are touting carbon capture and storage as a remedy for global warming, some experts caution that the nascent technology is unproven and expensive, and should not replace efforts to phase out hydrocarbons.

"Renewable energies are not and cannot be the only answer," argued Al Jaber, who is simultaneously the head of state oil giant ADNOC and the country's climate envoy.

"If we are serious about curbing industrial emissions, we need to get serious about carbon capture technologies," he told the United Arab Emirates' Climate Tech event in Abu Dhabi.

"We need to phase out emissions," added Al Jaber, reiterating his position that crude remains indispensable to the global economy and crucial to financing the energy transition.

- COP battleground issue -

The debate between carbon capture and reduced fossil fuel use is shaping as a key battleground at COP28, beginning in November in Dubai, the UAE's commercial hub.

Earlier this year, the UN's climate expert panel (IPCC) said the world risks crossing the key 1.5-degree Celsius global warming threshold in about a decade, urging a drastic reduction in planet-heating emissions.

One of the fastest transformations will need to be in energy, the report said, with solar and wind power already expanding dramatically.

Major economies are taking key steps, with the European Union banning sales of new fossil fuel cars from 2035 and planning to nearly double renewable energy production by 2030.

But greenhouse gas emissions from existing fossil fuel infrastructure will still push the world beyond 1.5C unless the costly and emerging carbon capture and storage technologies are utilised, the IPCC said.

"Cost remains a barrier," said Al Jaber, president-designate of COP28.

He said policymakers must provide incentives to companies to commercialise technological solutions, including carbon capture and storage (CCS) and direct air capture (DAC).

CCS syphons off CO2 pollution from energy production and heavy industry and stores it underground, thus preventing it from entering the atmosphere.

By contrast, direct air capture -– still in its infancy -- removes CO2 directly from ambient air, which makes it a "negative emissions" technology.

- 'Distraction we can't afford' -

Some environmentalists are sceptical about the focus on carbon capture, with Rex Weyler from Greenpeace last year labelling it a "scam".

"Carbon offset technologies are a distraction that we cannot afford," Julien Jreissati, programme director at Greenpeace MENA, told AFP on Wednesday.

"They have yet to be commercially viable and are not proven at scale despite years of development and billions of dollars of investment."

Worldwide, there are about 35 commercial facilities applying carbon capture, utilisation and storage to industrial processes, fuel transformation and power generation, with a total annual capture capacity of almost 45 million tonnes of CO2, according to the International Energy Agency.

Current global CO2 emissions from all sources are about 40 billion tonnes.

Novel DAC technologies only account for a tiny fraction -- about 0.1 percent -- of worldwide carbon dioxide removal, the first global assessment of CO2 removal said in January.

The report stated that capping global warming at liveable levels will be impossible without massively scaling up the extraction of planet-warming carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

A.Weber--NZN