At this rate the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance will have to revise its expectations and change its name to the Slightly Less Oil and Gas Alliance. The lobby group, made of nation states currently chaired jointly by Denmark and Costa Rica, was one of many organisations upset that Saudi Arabia and Russia managed to ensure the COP27 final agreement, announced on 20 November, did not include a commitment to phasing out fossil fuels. The text instead said low-emission energy would be the goal – which leaves the door open for 'carbon capture' to be used in conjunction with existing fossil fuel burning technologies.
Coincidentally, last week the UK parliament heard from experts about the viability of carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS). “Demonstrations around the world of CCUS have had mixed success…it’s been talked about for decades now and it really needs to get to the point of showing it can actually work,” said Phil MacDonald from climate analysis firm Ember.
More optimistic was Catherine Raw, who runs SSE’s (SSE) thermal business. “Having just come back from COP27, it’s very clear that [CCUS] is established as a mainstream, low-carbon technology,” she said. “We’ve got multiple countries across the world already operating [CCUS] plants.”