PARIS: Dreams of braking global
warming by storing carbon emissions from power plants could be undermined by the
risk of leakage, according to a study published on Sunday.
Rich
countries have earmarked tens of billions of dollars of investment in carbon
capture and storage (CCS), a technology that is still only at an experimental
stage. Under CCS, carbon dioxide (CO2) would be snared at source from plants
that are big burners of oil, gas and coal.
Instead of being released
into the atmosphere, where it would contribute to warming, the gas would be
buried in the deep ocean or piped into underground chambers such as disused gas
fields.
Critics say CCS could be dangerous if the stored gas returns
to the atmosphere. Storing CO2 in the ocean will contribute to acidification of
the sea, with dangers that reverberate up the food chain, says its author,
Gary Shaffer, a professor at the Danish Centre for Earth System Science in
Humlebaek, Denmark.
Underground storage is a better option, but only
if the geological chamber does not have a significant leak or is breached by an
earthquake or some other movement, says the paper.
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