Statement on CCS March 2013

BSPC Working Group on Green Growth and Energy EfficiencyMongstad, 1 March 2013Statement by the Working Group on Green Growth and Energy Efficiencyof the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference (BSPC)Climate change is a serious threat to the development and prosperity of human society. According to a new report published by the World Bank, the average global temperature could increase by 4 degrees during this century, causing a sea level rise of over 1 meter. The effects would be disastrous. Fossil fuels, the major source of CO2 emissions, are expected to remain the dominant energy source for the foreseeable future. The risk of failure in reaching the goal to stop global warming at 2 degrees Celsius is looming. There is an imminent need to reduce the dependency of fossil fuels, extend the use of renewable fuels, and curb the emissions of climate gases. One important method for this is CO2 capture and storage (CCS).CCS technologies are evolving, but must become commercially viable within a few years. The availability and utilization of CCS depends not only on the technology itself, but also on political and financial incentives to implement the technologies. Currently, the price of CO2 is too low to function as an attractive economic incentive. The functioning of the European Trading System needs to be strengthened in order to support investments, development and implementation of new and sustainable energy technologies.The BSPC Working Group on Green Growth and Energy Efficiency recognises and commends the importance of the CO2 Technology Centre Mongstad (TMC) in Bergen in developing new and innovative CCS technologies. Furthermore, it welcomes the important initiatives taken by TMC to form an international test centre network for carbon CCS facilities around the world, in order to share knowledge to accelerate the productization and commercialisation of CCS technologies.