29^th World Climate Congress

Carbon Capture and Sequestration

Carbon sequestration is a set of technologies that can greatly reduce CO2 emissions from new and existing coal- and gas-fired power plants and large industrial sources. Carbon sequestration includes: Capture of CO2, Transport of the captured and compressed CO2 and Underground injection and geologic sequestration of the CO2 into deep underground rock formations. Carbon sequestration is important because it could play an important role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, while enabling low-carbon electricity generation from power plants. Carbon sequestration can significantly reduce emissions from large stationary sources of CO2, which include coal- and natural-gas-fired power plants, as well as certain industry types such as ethanol and natural gas processing plants. There are nevertheless significant drawbacks associated with reliance on geo sequestration as a major contributor to the reduction of GHG emissions in the context of climate change mitigation. A far less high-tech way is biological sequestration and it encourages organic farming practices, increased organic inputs to farm soils, and low-tillage farming systems. Not only do organically rich soils sequester CO2, they also have higher crop yields and lower fertilizer input requirements (also reducing CO2 emissions).