More harm than good? CCS development risks may weigh more than its potential

Investors will need to distinguish between the different types of CCS projects. 

Investment risks of projects for carbon capture and storage (CCS) still outweigh their potential, a report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) found. 

The report, authored by guest contributor Micahel Salt, noted that investors need to distinguish between the types of CCS as its risks and opportunities vary.

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IEEFA surveyed CCS for power generation, industrial and blue hydrogen, and carbon dioxide removal technologies. Salt found that overall, CCS investments had insufficient verifiable data to prove their effectiveness. 

“Given the status of the technology, and the balance of risks, CCS needs to significantly evolve and be technically proven in order to be commercially viable at-scale, and, therefore bankable,” the report read. 

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The IEEFA noted that CCS applications are largely considered emerging technology as they had only been commercially deployed in gas processing. 

Despite this, CCS for gas processing are generally seen as unreliable.