Positive environmental news stories

Carbon capture and storage works very well, and is important going forward. Of course it is expensive and not the silver bullet but combined with renewable energy, reduced plastic use, more nuclear etc the energy transition is progressing. Applying it in less developed countries will be the major challenge. So far reduction targets are generally for developed countries.

 
Carbon capture and storage works very well, and is important going forward. Of course it is expensive and not the silver bullet
I think the important point about Carbon Capture and Storage isn't how well it works, or the fact that it hasn't been carried out at scale yet, because those are just a lack of investment, and billions were set aside for it in the last UK Budget. The problem is the impression that it provides - that we can solve this problem only with better technology - that we can carry on as we have been (the article you provided was a CCS attached to a gas power plant as they have been in the USA). The general public do not understand the sheer scale of this problem. They think governments actually know what they are doing and have made adequate plans. They think that all the targets and limits agreed to and all that talking going on means that everything will be okay, when it is actually what will be done that is important, not what is said or signed on symbolic pieces of paper.

2023 saw the highest man-made CO2 released. 2024 will be higher still. We are not on target to be net neutral and thinking that we can produce power with gas because it has a CCS attached gives completely the wrong impression

The best Carbon sinks are trees, peat bogs and marine plankton. The rise in dissolved CO2, causing the oceans to become more acidic is killing the plankton. We are still cutting peat and cutting down forests on an unprecedented scale. CCS cannot compensate for not stopping that either.

There are things that we need to reduce such as travel and meat eating, that are unacceptable to many people, because they don't believe it is necessary. They want to continue their lifestyles and don't see any problem. CCS gives completely the wrong message to those people.

On the plus side, a recent survey said there is plenty of underground storage to store all the carbon captured and we are beginning to scale up the technology. As, I say, the problem is more about public perceptions.
 

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