Scientists tell critics that storage technology is the best way for the United Kingdom to cut down on heavy industry emissions and meet climate goals.
Experts vigorously criticize green groups over last week's claims on carbon capture and storage schemes. According to these groups, carbon capture is a costly mistake that won't reduce fossil fuel emissions.
Scientists insist that the schemes are critical weapons in the raging battle against global heating and climate change. Should trapping carbon dioxide and storing it underground would fail, it would be almost impossible to keep net emissions below zero by 2050.
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What is Carbon Capture?
Carbon dioxide is the leading greenhouse gas produced. It's vital in trapping heat in the atmosphere. Without CO2, the Earth would be inhospitably cold. Unfortunately, too much CO2 emissions are why the climate crisis is unfolding.
According to the United States Geological Survey, carbon sequestration or Carbon Capture is a process of trapping and storing atmospheric CO2 that will reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in hopes of mitigating global climate change effectively.
Facilities with carbon capture and sequestration/ storage (CCS) will capture almost 90-100% of the CO2 produced during the industrial process, says Resources for the Future Organization.
"Carbon capture and storage is going to be the only effective way we have in the short term to prevent our steel industry, cement manufacture, and many other processes from continuing to pour emissions into the atmosphere," explains professor Stuart Haszeldine from Edinburgh University in an article by the Guardian.
Experts say that the only hope of keeping global temperature below two degrees celsius is to develop ways to capture and store atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Britain is considered geologically capable of developing and operating carbon capture technology given its depletion of North Sea oil fields where CO2 can be stored.
Over the past 20 years, several CCS programs have been launched. However, they have been canceled as governments facilitated over funding.
On the other hand, Boris Johnson--the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom---has pledged £1 billion of public funds to develop four major CCS schemes by 2030 as part of the "Green Industrial Revolution" plan.
The project aims to make the United Kingdom the pioneer of CCS technology and generate thousands of jobs.
However, last week green groups at Global Witness and Friends of the Earth Scotland argue that resilience on carbon capturing and sequestration technology is not a reliable decarbonizing energy system.
These claims were immediately dismissed by geologists and engineers, saying, "these claims are quite unfair," according to Michael Stephenson from the British Geological Survey.
Experts explain that carbon capture and storage is held by sound science, offering a genuine solution to the global warming problems that are plaguing the world.
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