You may have heard buzzwords like “clean coal” and “carbon sequestering” of late and wondered what they mean. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS -  the official term), is the idea of taking carbon dioxide from where it is highly concentrated, bundling it up and storing it to prevent the CO2 leaking into the atmosphere. The concept is most relevant to the energy industry, as coal-burning power plants emit vast amounts of carbon dioxide contributing around 30% of our total emissions. If we could retrofit our power plants with devices to lock away the CO2 waste, we would be a lot closer to meeting our climate targets.

That’s a big IF, according to a recent article in The Economist. The feature argues that the levels of support CCS is gaining among political groups, and even reliance on it, is unjustified due to the technology being unproven and incurring huge costs.

If you’d like to know more about CCS then this is well worth a read.

Read article here. http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13226661