Burying greenhouse pollution is feasible but pricey, says UN report

OTTAWA - Sep 26 - By Dennis Bueckert

Burying greenhouse gas pollution from power plants and factories before it enters the air is technically feasible but wouldn't make economic sense for Canada under its current Kyoto plan, a UN report suggests.

Up to 40 per cent of the carbon emissions from large industrial facilities around the world could be captured and injected underground, says the report by the International Panel on Climate Change.

Canada has played a leading role in developing carbon-injection technology. A plant at Weyburn, Sask., uses carbon dioxide piped from North Dakota to force oil out of the ground.

But the report says the technique, known as "carbon sequestration" will only take hold if there is a market for carbon and the price per tonne is at least $25-$30 US.

Ottawa hopes to have a carbon market operating by 2007 but has promised industry the price of carbon will not exceed $15 a tonne.

"We are very aware that there are non-technology constraints," said Klaus Topfer, head of the UN Environment Program, in a teleconference from Montreal.

"One of them is, if you don't have a price . . . you don't have demand for those technologies. You must of course have the demand otherwise you will not have those technologies used."

Matthew Bramley of the Pembina Institute said Ottawa's $15-per-tonne price cap applies to the current Kyoto implementation plan which ends in 2012, suggesting the technology might become attractive in Canada after that date.

Even if underground storage involves substantial investment, it seems to eliminate the doomsday notion that human beings could be left with no options on a slowly baking planet.

"This is an option we may need to use to achieve the deep reductions that are actually necessary if we are to prevent the global temperature from rising more than a degree or two," said Bramley. "If we had more warming than that it takes you into the danger zone."

He noted that other strategies for cutting emissions now are cheaper and can be used now.

"This (sequestration) is just one in a portfolio of options to achieve major greenhouse gas reductions and from our perspective the options that come first are energy conservation, energy efficiency and low-impact renewable energy."

The UN experts said the risk of a leak is no greater than with conventional oil and gas pipelines. Carbon dioxide is heavier than air and a large leak could cause a layer of the suffocating gas to settle in low-lying areas.

Capturing the carbon from coal-fired power plants would increase the cost of electricity by one to five cents US per kilowatt hour, says the report.

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