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Europeans to Pay for Chinese Carbon-Capture Plant
Associated Press
BRUSSELS — The European Union said Thursday it will give China up to euro50 million ($70 million) to build a carbon capture and storage plant that will test a technology aimed at limiting climate change.
The EU’s executive commission says the money will help China develop coal-burning power stations that could capture carbon dioxide and bury it underground.
That would allow China to use its most plentiful energy source, coal, without releasing more of the greenhouse gas linked to climate change.
During last month’s EU-China summit, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao asked Europe to help provide it with “clean coal” technology so China could curb emissions from coal-fired power stations.
Energy companies in Europe and the U.S. already are working on trial plants to test if the costly technology could work commercially and whether the carbon can be safely stored, and the EU wants to encourage that kind of work in Asia, too.
The world’s most populous continent, with the fastest-growing economies in China and India, already accounts for a third of world emissions of gases blamed for warming weather, including carbon dioxide, the Asian Development Bank has said.
The EU is asking other European governments to contribute more public money to the China carbon capture and storage plant project, saying the technology “would be significantly delayed without immediate assistance from developed countries.” This could help trigger more private funding, it says.
The European Commission is pledging euro7 million of EU money immediately to check if a plant would be feasible and is prepared to give up to euro50 million “provided there is continued political support from China and satisfactory progress” with the project. It says it also expects funding from China.
Adding carbon capture and storage to a new power plant burning coal could cost an extra euro980 million ($1.4 billion), it said.
Growing energy demand in China, India, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico “is likely to be met largely from fossil fuels,” the EU said, and “the capacity to deal with these very substantial potential emissions must be developed urgently.”
Carbon capture and storage could shave some 10 percent off global gas emissions by 2030, the EU says. A panel of United Nations scientists recommend that emissions must be halved by 2050 to avoid a catastrophic rise in sea levels, harsher storms and droughts and climate disruptions.
Norwegian oil company Statoil already pumps carbon dioxide into an empty natural gas field under the North Sea and a gas reservoir in the Algerian desert. Swedish power firm Vattenfall is building a “clean coal” plant in Germany that stores CO2 in a nearby aquifer.
EU governments agreed in March to devote some euro1 billion ($1.4 billion) to building 12 demonstration plants in Europe by 2015.
But some environmentalists are critical about investing heavily in a technology that they say keeps the energy sector hooked on polluting coal and gas instead of shifting faster to zero-carbon renewable sources such as wind or solar power.
June 27th, 2009 at 8:24 am
Pumping CO2 underground under pressure does nothing but delay the timing of its release to the atmosphere. Unless there is a thermodynamically stable conversion of the gas to a solid, this technology is a dead end.
June 28th, 2009 at 8:25 am
Although some media outlets and Al Gore want to pretend the “debate” about global warming is over, the facts remain. Global warming is a scam. Now it is called climate change. Who can argue this, climate change has occurred since the beginning of time. The earth warms and cools in cycles and will continue to do so – reducing pollutnats should be a goal of everyone, but carbon “credits” are just a scam for people like Al Gore to get rich. Let’s have a real debate!
June 28th, 2009 at 11:26 am
It seems to me that piggybacking on what the Europeans are doing to produce clean coal by creating a carbon capture process and pumping the waste in gas reserves and in the desert would less negative impact on the economy in these bad economic times. Sweedish firm Vattenfall is building in Germany a coal plant that stores CO2 in a nearby aquifer and plans 12 demonstration plants by 2015. Why is the U.S. not doing this? We have an abundance of coal in this country, with this technology we would not loose jobs but create an offshoot that will bring further jobs to our country. The plant being built by Europe for China because they won’t build it themselves, is porpoted to lessen emissions by 10% yet the bill passed by the house is 2/10 of 1% by the end of the Century in the U.S. Why are we being rushed into backrupcy when there are better alternative than Cap in Trade? Is it because friends of the Democratic party AIG, GE and the Illinois Cap and Trade firm will profit?
June 29th, 2009 at 2:31 am
Gee, with China now the largest GHG polluter and also the country with 1.9 Trillion surplus, the fact that the EU ‘needs’ to give the Chinese any money shows that China is interested in more money, not in a cleaner environment. Couple this fact with China’s general intolerance of local green activism, and it is difficult to imagine the planet’s largest environmental violator is even vaguely serious the health of the planet.
June 29th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
is crazy
June 29th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
These fools are going to send money to China? What, is it some sort of international charity case requiring aid? They have no money to do their own research? I dont *think so!
Why dont they just steal the tech like they do software and movies and music?
EuroIdiots!
June 29th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
Let China pay for it’s own pollution control. I hope the US isn’t getting soaked on this one – China already has enough trade cards stacked in it’s favor.
esides I thought “There is no such thing as clean coal” ?
June 30th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
#%%#%#% China. Sell them the technology at the very highest possible cost.
July 2nd, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Why don’t “some environmentalists” also suggest nuclear power as an alternative to coal. If global warming is as serious as some claim, we need to be investing as quickly as possible in any and all forms of zero carbon power production.
July 3rd, 2009 at 10:19 am
Befor the EU governments spend money that doesn’t belong to them, I would like to ask three questions and add a comment.
1. What is the current CO2 level of the Earth?
2. What level are the EU governments trying to attain?
Volcanos shoot significant amounts of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere. This gas is converted to CO2.
3. How will the EU governments contain all these volcano particulates injected into the stratosphere?
July 3rd, 2009 at 10:38 am
The Chinese have 2 TRILLION is dollar reserves but need help to pay for this? What hokum!!!
July 4th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
china doesnt care. let them pay for it
July 6th, 2009 at 6:05 am
Carbon capture is junk science. Why not just build huge off shore carbon air filtration stations that sucks in all the pollution and filters it through carbon filters like the filtrations systems we have in our homes its the same principle.
July 7th, 2009 at 9:03 am
Fools and their money are soon parted!
July 7th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
Sure, put the C02 in the ground, then we will have a water table crises. More junk science in the name of removing tax dollars and jobs.
Start looking at who benefits from this, follow the money – Look who at the Chicago Carbon Exchange wins in this silliness. And we all thought Cheney was sleazy, it will make us long for the days of just knowing W sucked. These are the most insane thieves ever, how do you like your change now.
July 7th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
OF ALLTHE SCAMS IVE EVER SEEN THIS IS THE BIGGEST ,AND AL GORE HAS SET UP 40 COMPANIES THAT WILL SUCK UP THE FUNDS ,HIS CLAIM OF IM NOT DOING THIS FOR THE MONEY IS PURE BULLDUST CONSIDERING HWE MADE OVER 300 MILLION WITH HIS FAKE MOVIE AND THERE IS NOT ONE BIT OF EVIDENCE THAT SAYS C02 EVEN HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITYH WEATHER ,ITS ALL ABOUT RUINING THE WEST’S INDUSTRY AND CONTROL LIKE THE NAZIS ,ITS THE CLIMATE CHANGE THATS THE JUNK SCIENCE ,SO STOP THE WAFFLE AND SHOW US THE EVIDENCE ?THE SUN HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IT ,YEAH RIGHT ,YOU MUST BE BRAINDEAD OR SOMETHING ,IF YOU TURNED THE SUN OFF AND C02 WAS A MILLION TIMES HIGHER WHAT WOULD YOU GET ? NOTHING BUT ICE FOOLS ,NOT HEATWAVES ,TURN IT BACK ON WHAT DO YOU GET? HEAT ,CAN YOU WORK IT OUT NOW DUMMIES ?IF ALL C02 WAS TAKEN OUT OF THE ATMOSPHERE WHAT WOULD HAPPEN? EVERY LIVING THING ON THIS PLANET WOULD DIE ,YOUR ARGUMENTS ARE SO STUPID RADICALS IT DEFIES BELIEF.
July 8th, 2009 at 2:16 am
I think pollution is inevitable. It might be already too late for anyone to do anything about the damage caused by the pollution that we caused anyway. People with $ can do whatever they want to do to make themselves feel better i guess.
Atm i say we shd be more worried about the local rapist or sth.
July 8th, 2009 at 10:47 am
That CHINA should be given or claim to need any money to clean up their “act” is both ludicrous and indicative of how truly idiotic this entire topic (global warming) is. “Idiot”…look it up on Wiki and see if the term doesn’t apply to someone we all know of.
July 8th, 2009 at 11:43 am
The left is smarter than the right and here’s why: They know that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Although libs are in the vast minority (20% according to Gallup), they always have their faces on TV, in magazines, on street corners holding signs. This tricks the average American who is too busy working two or three jobs to get involved into thinking, “Oh… XYZ must be an issue because all these people are talking about it.” Middle-of-the-road and conservative Americans need to wise up and wake up. If mainstream America wants to take control back from the deadend path the libs have put us on, mainstream America is going to need to challenge them on blogs, stop watching liberal “news” channels (MSNBC, CNN, ABC, etc), and stop buying liberal “news” magazines such as Time, Newsweek, etc.
July 8th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
I say, after we paint our roofs white, and park our nickle battery hybrids in our eco-friendly greenhouse garages, we should tape filters to fans and let the run out side to circulate the CO2 from the air through the filter. The global warming can be solved!
In all seriousness, if this does prove to be a feasible way to take carbon particles out of the air, where in the hell are we going to put all of it.
July 8th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
Better their money than ours.
Also, LOL at the critical environmentalists. Even though this will be trapping the carbon, which they say is the pollutant, they won’t be satisfied until we’re all at the mercy of the wind and the clouds.