IEA workshop highlights crucial role of carbon capture technologies for clean energy transitions

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Dr Fatih Birol, the IEA’s Executive Director, highlighted the critical importance of carbon capture as he opened the workshop.

Dr Fatih Birol, the IEA’s Executive Director, highlighted the critical importance of carbon capture as he opened the workshop (Photograph: IEA)

The International Energy Agency held a high-level workshop today on the role that carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) can play in a cleaner and more resilient energy sector. The event brought together international experts from across governments, industry, NGOs and leading global institutions.

The workshop will inform IEA analysis for the new edition of the flagship Energy Technology Perspectives (ETP) publication. First launched in 2006, the ETP series has contributed to global energy and environmental policy-making. To further strengthen ETP’s relevance for decision-makers in governments and industry, the IEA will revamp the publication and release a new edition in mid-2020 with the aim of making it a global guidebook on clean energy technologies.

Today’s workshop involved more than 80 experts from around the world, with presentations and discussions centred on the potential for CCUS technologies to support carbon-neutral energy systems. In particular, the value of shared transport and storage infrastructure for CO₂, the importance of CCUS for hard-to-mitigate emissions, and the role of carbon removal in the energy transition featured in the discussions.

“When we consider the scale of the energy and climate challenge, the critical importance of carbon capture is inescapable,” said Dr Fatih Birol, the IEA’s Executive Director, who opened the event. “CCUS can make a major contribution, and today’s workshop provides a valuable opportunity to reflect on progress and identify how we can build a strong foundation for CCUS in the coming decade.”

The 2020 edition of ETP will place a special focus on the wide-ranging potential of CCUS, alongside other key energy technologies, to support a long-term transition to a cleaner and more resilient energy sector with net-zero emissions. It will identify the industries in which CCUS is critical and cost-effective for tackling emissions, and the ways in which its application in one sector can help emissions reductions in others.