What is carbon capture? Premium

Global warming caused by greenhouse gases, especially CO2, requires human adaptation and mitigation efforts, including controversial carbon capture technology.

Global warming is the result of certain greenhouse gases — but especially carbon dioxide (CO2) — building up in the air and preventing the planet from cooling as quickly as it would without them. Although some natural processes emit these gases, their build-up to dangerous levels is entirely due to emissions from human industrial activity, including the combustion of fossil fuels like coal and petrol.T

hus the human response to climate change has two prongs: adaptation and mitigation. Adaptation deals with how the world, its people, and their activities can adjust to an increasingly warming world. Mitigation is concerned with reducing CO2 emissions.

An important type of technology that straddles both these efforts is carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). Here, a device sucks carbon or CO2 out of an emission source, like the chimneys of a power plant, or the atmosphere itself, converts it to a different form, and stores it in a sealed container.

CCS has been controversial: among others, researchers have said it could create more ‘room’ to pollute by removing CO2 from the air.

A study published on February 9 in the journal Environmental Science & Technology has now reported that deploying CCS technologies will also be more expensive than switching to renewable energy. According to the paper, policies that promote CCS “to reduce or offset CO2 emissions” in 149 countries will incur 9-12-times the social cost of those countries switching entirely to wind, water, and solar power.