Carbon Capture and Storage Demonstration and Low-Carbon Energy Transitions: Explaining Limited Progress

Abstract

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is often presented as an important element in strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and avoid dangerous climate change. However, recent progress in getting large-scale CCS demonstration projects off the ground has been slower than expected and concentrated in just a handful of countries. In this chapter, we review international progress in demonstrating CCS between 2010 and 2015 and conventional explanations offered for its limited progress. Taking a political–economic approach we identify a number of additional factors that have shaped CCS deployment and consider the difficulties CCS presents from a transitions perspective.