Is CO2 sequestration an effective contribution to climate protection?

CCS, carbon capture and storage, is increasingly discussed as an option in a climate protection strategy. How safe and how effective is this option? Ottmar Edenhofer, Brigitte Knopf and Matthias Kalkuhl, Potsdam Institute for Climate Research, Berlin, emphasise that climate policy will only be effective if it succeeds in preventing the greater portion of fossil resources from being released into the atmosphere. For this reason CCS can only be an option if there is an ambitious climate protection programme: "This, however, is only possible if a global emissions trading is established in the next ten years that results in a CO2 price that reflects the actual scarcity of the depositing capacity of the atmosphere." CCS will create scope for expanding global emissions trading and for investing in renewable energy. Important now are demonstration projects to reveal the technical feasibility and the economic advantages. For Bernhard Fischer, E.ON Energie AG, Munich, CCS is a promising approach. The associated costs and the risks in making these technologies marketable are considerable, however. For this reason governments should lend financial support for the first demonstration projects. Manfred Treber and Christoph Bals, Germanwatch e.V., Bonn, underscores that "although the individual components, but not the whole CCS, have passed the test, it is certainly usable for industrial applications". Above all, it must be ensured that the captured CO2 amounts can be permanently and safely stored in deep geological formations. Only then can it be decided whether CCS will contribute to the attaining of climate goals. Hans-Jochen Luhmann, Wuppertal Institute for the Climate, Environment and Energy examines CCS and coal-fired power stations, which in his opinion are only "a limited and temporary element of a solution to the climate problem".