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Carbon capture has only been considered as a possible mitigation technology for climate change since 2005

Carbon capture technologies such as Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) were first deployed on a small number of coal and gas power plants in the 1980s, but even up until the mid-1990s, the technology was still considered in its infancy 1. As the technology was so new and the immediate urgency of addressing climate change was minimal, it was not until the 2000s that the technology was first identified in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Third Assessment Report as having a potential role in climate change mitigation 2. Up until this point, most forms of carbon sinks and offsets were via natural sources such as land usage changes.

This perception and recognition of the role of carbon capture in mitigating climate change experienced a major shift in 2005 with the release of the IPCC's Special Report on Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage 3. This report provided a detailed analysis of the potential role of CCS in mitigating climate change and the various challenges and opportunities associated with the technology. In the most recent IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) between 2021 and 2023, carbon dioxide removal was identified as an essential requirement for limiting global surface warming to 1.5°C and is also necessary to achieve a minimum of 2°C warming 4.. It should be noted that in November 2024, Copernicus, the Earth observation component of the European Union's Space programme, announced that 2024 will be the first recorded year with global average temperatures 1.5°C above preindustrial levels 5.

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Footnotes​

  1. Rochelle, G. T. (2009). Amine scrubbing for CO₂ capture. Science, 325(5948), 1652-1654. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1176731 ↩

  2. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). (2001). Climate change 2001: Synthesis report. A contribution of Working Groups I, II, and III to the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (R. T. Watson & Core Writing Team, Eds.). Cambridge University Press. ↩

  3. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). (2005). IPCC special report on carbon dioxide capture and storage. Prepared by Working Group III of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (B. Metz, O. Davidson, H. C. de Coninck, M. Loos, & L. A. Meyer, Eds.). Cambridge University Press. ↩

  4. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). (2023). Climate change 2023: Synthesis report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II, and III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Core Writing Team, H. Lee, & J. Romero, Eds.). IPCC. https://doi.org/10.59327/IPCC/AR6-9789291691647 ↩

  5. Copernicus Climate Change Service. (2024, November 7). Copernicus: 2024 virtually certain to be the warmest year and first year above 1.5°C. Copernicus. https://climate.copernicus.eu/copernicus-2024-virtually-certain-be-warmest-year-and-first-year-above-15degc ↩