CANCUN: Capturing carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and storing it underground is seen as a promising technology to reduce the global warming impact of fossil fuels such as coal and gas, on which the world will continue to rely for decades. But bringing the technology into the world's carbon market has proved expensive and controversial. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which was established in the Kyoto Protocol, awards credits to projects that lower emissions of greenhouse gases. With a value of $2.7 billion last year, the CDM lets companies invest in emissions cuts in emerging nations and in return get offsets once the projects are verified by "Designated Operational Entities". The inclusion of CCS within it has been repeatedly delayed because the technology is still unproven. Studies suggest it will not be available on a large scale until the 2025-2030 period, and there are concerns that it will not benefit developing countries. The issue of CCS has been on the table since the COP-10 meeting in 2005 but decisions were always postponed. This time, instead of the question being framed in a 'yes' or 'no' format, two options that both enable funding for the experimental technology have been approved by the Kyoto Protocol's scientific advisory board, the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA). Under the first option, CCS would be funded if concerns about carbon leakage from underground geological formations, environmental risk, legal liabilities and monitoring are "addressed". This would take place in discussions at the next SBSTA meeting with input from parties, observers and technical experts. Under the second option, CCS would be deemed ineligible for funding until and unless such issues are "resolved in a satisfactory manner" by Kyoto Protocol signatories. In practice, observers expect robust pressure would ensure that such resolutions were achieved, albeit with potentially greater safeguards and conditions attached. Final approval of the CCS proposals will depend on the shape of a broader deal that is currently being thrashed out at the summit. Artur Runge-Metzger, the EU's chief climate negotiator, said "we are at the stage of looking at the entire package and this is one bit of the mosaic," he said. "The EU legislation is there to allow for CCS. We think it is an important element and in Europe we are going into the stage of testing large scale whether this is the technology that can deliver." Negotiators have already moved the issue up the agenda. An original draft recommendation from SBSTA had contained an option declaring CCS technology ineligible for credits in the world's carbon market. But EurActiv understands that following pressure from OPEC states, particularly Saudi Arabia, the AOSIS group of South American countries which had led opposition to CCS backed down, as a negotiating tactic to protect their "red lines".
