Is carbon capture and storage dead?

The carbon capture and storage pilot plant at Imperial College London

Last week Energy Futures Lab hosted a panel discussion on the possible future of carbon capture and storage in the UK.

In November the UK government announced it was cancelling the £1bn competition for carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. This led many people to worry about the future of CCS in the UK and the ability of the country to meet its carbon emissions targets.

In recognition of this Energy Futures Lab brought together a panel of experts from industry and academia to discuss the possible future of carbon capture and storage in the UK. The event, organised in association with the British Institute of Energy Economics and the Energy Technologies Institute, was an opportunity for all to discuss the problems and solutions surrounding CCS in the UK.

The panel discussion was held last week in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London and chaired by Sir Ed Davey, the former Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. He was joined by a panel including:

• Professor Geoff Maitland, Director of the Qatar Carbonates and Carbon Storage Research Centre
• Dr Graeme Sweeney, Chairman of Zero Emissions Platform coalition
• Mike Thompson, Head of Carbon Budgets for the Committee on Climate Change
• Jim Ward, Business Development Director at the Energy Technologies Institute.

Zara Qadir from Sustainable Gas Institute has written a blog post about the evening Not having CCS is like not having a goalkeeper in football and we have uploaded a video of the talk and the ensuing questions and answers online.