Carbon Capture and Storage Briefing

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage (CCUS), has been gaining a lot of attention in the media – but what is it, and why should we be worried about its false positioning as a climate solution? This briefing answers these questions, and sets out why Friends of the Earth Scotland has deep concerns about the growing push for public investment in CCS from fossil fuels industries.

CCS is fundamentally unnecessary in the power sector, where industry often talk up its role. Instead, more cost effective, proven, and cleaner options to cut CO2 emissions exist; such as initiating a swift and just decarbonisation of the economy that focuses investment into wide scale renewable energy. 

The briefing sets out that:

• Despite billions in support over the last decade, CCS remains largely unproven and untested at scale. 
• Reliance on CCS risks diverting limited resources away from proven actions we know can help achieve our crucial 2030 target, create jobs and improve wellbeing.
• The IPCC states that faster emissions reductions that stick to 1.5ºC pathways can largely be achieved by implementing measures that “result in less CO2 being produced and emitted”.