Climate Targets And Financial Challenges In The Global South: The Case Of Carbon Capture And Storage

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is a key technology that holds the potentialto contribute to a sustainable future. As per the name, CCS is a process ofcapturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from stationary sources of carbon emissionsand permanently storing it, or capturing atmospheric CO2, either directly fromthe air (hereafter referred to as direct air capture, “DAC”) or from a pointsource (like a large fossil fuel-powered thermal power plant), and then injectingit in the subsurface for storage. This description highlights CCS’s capacity tooperate as a viable mechanism for cutting down emissions in industrial sectorsgenerally, and in hard-to-abate sectors particularly. In light of this, CCStechnologies have the potential to contribute as an important tool to meetclimate objectives in a variety of ways, and to become a key alternative for thedecarbonization of industries across the globe. Notwithstanding this, thescalability and widespread adoption of CCS is inhibited by its associated costs.This paper investigates the relationship between climate change and CCS, andconsiders whether there is a role for CCS in the global climate agenda. Thepaper further pinpoints the financial challenges to the successfulimplementation of CCS particularly for developing and least-developedcountries.