A Giant Carbon Dump Gives Glimpse Into Net-Zero Future
The capture and storage of harmful emissions is necessary for cleaning up some industrial processes, but it isn’t a hedge for fossil fuels.
Workers at the Northern Lights carbon capture and storage project in Norway.
Photographer: Andrea Gjestvang/Bloomberg
The world’s sleekest dump sits on an island near the picturesque port of Bergen in Norway. Strictly speaking, the gleaming Northern Lights terminal is just the gateway to the actual dump, where carbon dioxide will be offloaded from ships and then pumped down into an aquifer 1.6 miles below the seabed, about 60 miles offshore, keeping it locked away.
Getting to net zero mostly means stopping doing things that emit carbon. A supplement to this is capturing those emissions and storing them, like refuse in a landfill. In theory, carbon capture and storage, or CCS, offers the ultimate climate hedge for fossil fuel producers, albeit at a cost of perhaps $10 trillion through 2050.1More likely, it will play a vital role in mopping up the most stubborn emissions, but will be outcompeted by faster-moving alternatives for energy transition. Moreover, the incentives required to make it work would present, in themselves, a profound risk to fossil fuel producers.