London to host CCS summit

London will host a major international carbon capture and storage (CCS) summit on 13 October ahead of the UN Climate Change talks in Copenhagen.

The Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF), hosted by the UK and Norway, will bring together international energy and environment ministers from 23 countries as well as the European Commission and industry stakeholders.

It is hoped the summit will further the G8’s ambition to launch 20 CCS demonstration projects globally by 2010.

Ahead of the talks, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is launching a consultation that aims to harness the huge potential of the North Sea for storing CO₂.

The consultation will propose regulatory framework for exploration, development and management of the potential storage sites in a way that is safe and effectively co-ordinated with other uses of the sea.

The DECC stated that the discussion on license conditions for the storage of CO₂ in the North Sea starts on 28 September and is open for three months.

CCS technology captures the CO₂ emissions from fossil-fuel-fired power stations and other industrial plant and stores them in deep formations under the ground. The UK will host up to four demonstrations of the technology.

Energy and climate-change secretary Ed Miliband said there is enough potential under the North Sea to store more than 100 years' worth of CO₂ emissions from the UK's power fleet.

He added: 'We are also working closely with Norway and other North Sea Basin countries to ensure the North Sea fulfils its potential in the deployment of CCS in Europe. We want to get the UK regulatory framework in place so we can harness that potential and make the North Sea part of the CCS revolution.

‘Without CCS there is no solution to climate change. As well as getting things in place in the UK and Europe we need that consensus at the global talks in Copenhagen. The meeting in London will be a pivotal part of moving the discussion on CCS forward.'