BRUSSELS, Dec 12 (IPS) - Some of the world's most polluting companies are receiving financial support from the European taxpayer to promote the continued use of the fuels that cause global warming, according to a new report.In 2005, the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, set up a group known as the Zero Emissions Platform (ZEP) to advise it on the possibility of capturing carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants and burying it underground. Dominated by large energy firms, ZEP has secured 1.5 billion euros (2.2 billion dollars) in public subsidies and is busily lobbying for support from policy makers at the international climate change talks now under way in Copenhagen. Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), an organisation which monitors the influence of big business on the EU's institutions, deems it inappropriate that such vast sums are being allocated to carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects when the technology they employ has not yet proven to be environmentally benign. In a report titled 'Public funds used to lobby for fossil fuels in Copenhagen', CEO notes that the proponents of carbon storage admit that it will not be ready for use before 2020. As a result, it will not help realise the EU's objective of reducing by 20 percent its greenhouse gas emissions by the end of the next decade. Yet while the technology it is extolling is still in its infancy, ZEP is holding an event in the Danish capital this weekend to urge that carbon storage should be eligible for funding under the United Nations' clean development mechanism. This mechanism allows industrialised countries to invest in low- polluting projects in poorer nations as an alternative to cutting their own emissions of greenhouse gases. ZEP's 23 members mainly represent major energy companies including Shell, BP, Vattenfall, E.ON, Alstom, Siemens and Statoil.
Numerous companies and organizations, including Shell, have proposed capturing CO2 for storage underground; and scientists who were sceptical about the technique are now rallying to the cause. However, in view of the economic interests at stake, it is hard to tell the independent experts from the lobbyists. In early September, a 32-man line-up of big hitters including the CEOs of major industrial players such as Shell, Siemens, DSM (mines and chemicals), Nuon and Gasunie (power companies) and former prime minister Ruud Lubbers wrote to the Dutch parliament announcing that they were in favour of "Carbon capture and storage as an essential weapon in the fight against climate change." The open letter, which was published in the daily NRC Handelsblad, was also backed by a plethora of researchers and teachers from independent research centre TNO, and the universities of Delft, Groningen, Utrecht and Wageningen. With so many powerful and informed advocates onboard, you might be forgiven for thinking that this was one technical development that could not fail to make an impact, but it almost vanished without a trace in the Netherlands where authorities and inhabitants in the town of Barendrecht were none too happy about the creation of a CO2 storage facility underneath their homes [an experiment conducted by Shell and approved by the Friesian local government]. With the provision of grants both from the Dutch government and the European Union, CO2 storage may soon become a high stakes business--a potential that has not escaped the attention of Shell, which has abandoned wind and solar power to focus on CO2 capture and alternative fuels similar to oil.
Numerous companies and organizations, including Shell, have proposed capturing CO2 for storage underground; and scientists who were sceptical about the technique are now rallying to the cause. However, in view of the economic interests at stake, it is hard to tell the independent experts from the lobbyists.
In early September, a 32-man line-up of big hitters including the CEOs of major industrial players such as Shell, Siemens, DSM (mines and chemicals), Nuon and Gasunie (power companies) and former prime minister Ruud Lubbers wrote to the Dutch parliament announcing that they were in favour of "Carbon capture and storage as an essential weapon in the fight against climate change." The open letter, which was published in the daily NRC Handelsblad, was also backed by a plethora of researchers and teachers from independent research centre TNO, and the universities of Delft, Groningen, Utrecht and Wageningen. With so many powerful and informed advocates onboard, you might be forgiven for thinking that this was one technical development that could not fail to make an impact, but it almost vanished without a trace in the Netherlands where authorities and inhabitants in the town of Barendrecht were none too happy about the creation of a CO2 storage facility underneath their homes [an experiment conducted by Shell and approved by the Friesian local government].
With the provision of grants both from the Dutch government and the European Union, CO2 storage may soon become a high stakes business--a potential that has not escaped the attention of Shell, which has abandoned wind and solar power to focus on CO2 capture and alternative fuels similar to oil.
