Shell endorses proposals to accelerate deployment of carbon capture and storage

Shell endorses proposals to accelerate deployment of carbon capture and storage

07/05/2008Royal Dutch Shell Plc supports the EU commitment to demonstrate Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology in 12 large-scale plants by 2015. Early demonstration is key to bring environmentally safe CCS to commercial deployment from 2020.

Commenting on the European Parliament’s first debate on CCS held yesterday in Brussels, Shell’s Executive Vice President CO2 Graeme Sweeney said: “The proposed CCS and Emissions Trading Directives provide a unique opportunity to establish a framework for funding using the power of the carbon market to drive CCS deployment. We support the proposals discussed in the Parliament to award carbon credits for CO2 captured and stored, during the demonstration phase. This would enable investment decisions on CCS to be made as early as 2009.”

Shell welcomes the draft CCS Directive which provides for a sound regulatory framework for the geological storage of CO2. But in its initial stages of implementation a transitional funding is crucial to accelerate CCS deployment which is key to achieve CO2 emission reduction targets by 2020.

Shell believes that government policies adopted in Europe in the next five years could help shape the world’s energy landscape for a half-century to come. Shell has estimated that a seven year delay in the world’s known CCS projects means 90-100 billion tones of avoidable CO2 emissions being released into the atmosphere, or a 10 ppm increase in long-term CO2 stabilization levels.