ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, Jan. 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The world must wake up to the crucial role carbon capture and storage (CCS) is playing in decarbonising the future, the World Future Summit in Abu Dhabi was told today.

Industrial processes like UAE's Al Reyadah CCS facility are proving that CCS is a comprehensive and commercially viable technology - and a lynchpin to meeting global climate goals.

Speaking at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, IEA Head of CCS Unit, Juho Lipponen, and Global CCS Institute Executive Adviser (Europe, Middle East and Africa), John Scowcroft, said the ability of CCS to reduce emissions across industry, was enormous.

Mr Lipponen said the Al Reyadah CCS project, the world's first iron and steel facility to install carbon capture and storage, was paving the way for other industrial complexes - cement, fertilisers, and natural gas processing - to capture and store CO2 emissions.

"With the ratification of the Paris Agreement, the ability of CCS to reduce emissions from fossil fuel use in power generation and industrial processes will be crucial to limiting future temperature increases to 'well below 2 degrees Celsius'.

"The combination of CCS and bioenergy (energy from organic sources) can also deliver 'negative emissions' which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has highlighted as essential to achieving more ambitious climate targets.

The potential for CCS simply cannot be ignored in implementing the Paris Agreement."

Mr Scowcroft said as CO2 emissions from industrial sources continue to rise, it was clear that CCS was the most realistic carbon mitigation option for industrial processes if a well below 2 degrees Celsius target is to be achieved. 

"When governments recognise the challenge of transforming industrial processes for a low carbon economy, we will be much closer to reaching the almost 4,000 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) of CO2 that needs to be captured by 2040 to meet climate goals."

Al Reyadah is the world's first commercial Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) facility for the steel industry. Previously, Emirates Steel was the source of one per cent of the UAE's total CO2. Now the carbon capture program sequesters up to 800,000 tonnes of CO2 a year from the plant. The captured CO2 is being injected into Abu Dhabi's maturing oil fields to enhance oil recovery where it remains trapped underground.

Speaking at the World Future Energy Summit - part of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week and the Middle East's largest gathering on sustainability - Al Reyadah CEO, Arafat Al Yafei, said the facility is a major step forward in the UAE's commitment to meeting its climate goals, and he urged other regional countries to follow the UAE's lead and develop their own CCS programmes.

"The Al Reyadah facility is a major achievement in the UAE's commitment to meeting climate goals. Efforts to stop climate change at the 2 degrees Celsius limit will require widespread implementation of carbon capture technologies. If its success can be replicated, within the UAE and across the Middle East, it could be a game changer in the fight to limit CO2 emissions.

"CCUS is a prime example of how clean technology can be integrated with traditional energy to create efficiency and optimise resources, while at the same time reducing any environmental impact," Al Yafei added.

"Our objective at Al Reyadah is to satisfy ADNOC's demand for CO2, in support of its ambitious plans to increase oil and gas production capacity while at the same time contributing to the UAE's overall sustainable growth strategy, as well as the global effort to mitigate climate change."

The Al Reyadah CCS Project is a joint venture between Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and Masdar, the renewable energy arm of the Abu Dhabi Government.

With Al Reyadah, there are now 16 large-scale CCS projects operating globally across a range of applications with seven more poised to come onstream capturing over 30.85Mtpa of CO2.

"These projects are clear proof that CCS is proven and capable of achieving deep cuts in industrial emissions, and an essential part of the arsenal needed to fight climate change," Mr Scowcroft, concluded.

For media enquiries, contact:

Global CCS Institute:

Antonios Papaspiropoulos, +61 401 944 478,
Antonios.Papaspiropoulos@globalccsinstitute.com

Jelena Susa, +61 413 269 410,
Jelena.Susa@globalccsinstitute.com 

IEA:
Juho Lipponen, +33 6 83 48 94 77

About the Global CCS Institute The Global CCS Institute is an international membership organisation. Our mission is to accelerate the deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS), a vital technology to tackle climate change and provide energy security.

Working with and on behalf of our Members, we drive the adoption of CCS as quickly and cost effectively as possible by sharing expertise, building capacity and providing advice and support so that this vital technology can play its part in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Our diverse international membership consists of governments, global corporations, small companies, research bodies and nongovernment organisations, committed to CCS as an integral part of a low-carbon future. We are headquartered in Melbourne, Australia with regional offices in Washington DC, Brussels, Beijing and Tokyo. For more information, visit www.globalccsinstitute.com

About the IEA: The International Energy Agency, the global energy authority, was founded in 1974 to help its member countries co-ordinate a collective response to major oil supply disruptions. Its mission has evolved and rests today on three main pillars: working to ensure global energy security; expanding energy cooperation and dialogue around the world; and promoting an environmentally sustainable energy future.

SOURCE Global CCS Institute and IEA