隨著碳排放價格飆升，將碳掩埋的成本接近臨界點（1/2）

Recently Yahoo News on-line reported the following:

Cost to Bury Carbon Near Tipping Point as Emissions Price Soars (1 of 2)

Rachel Morison and Samuel Etienne

Sat., August 14, 2021, 10:00 p.m.

(Bloomberg) -- Skyrocketing carbon prices and a “code red” warning about the threat posed by climate change are giving fresh momentum to a technology that captures and removes greenhouse gas emissions so they can be buried.

The market for these tools could reach $2 trillion if used to cut pollution from heavy industry, according to Credit Suisse Group AG. With carbon more than doubling in the past year and prices set to reach 100 euros ($118) as soon as the middle of this decade, capture technology finally is going mainstream as governments push to reach net zero.

The cost to release carbon has never been higher in Europe and it’s poised to keep increasing, creating a tipping point where preventing the emissions becomes a viable economic alternative. Capture technology already is used in North America and Australia, and large projects are being developed in the U.K., Netherlands and Norway.

“Carbon pricing is driving industries to push to adopt the technology sooner,” said Samantha McCulloch, head of carbon capture usage and storage at the International Energy Agency. “The growing portfolio of CCUS projects around the world is important to refine these technologies, reduce costs and support the scale-up.”

Carbon-capture technology has been around for decades and is used in some industries, but it’s still expensive – costing as much as $120 a ton in cement production and power generation, according to the IEA. Costs depend on the location of the project and the technology used. That compares to the current cost of pollution permits of about 55 euros a ton.

The process siphons off carbon dioxide from fossil fuels, compresses it, transports it and then stores it in depleted undersea oil reservoirs. The number of projects planned around the world has risen six-fold since 2019 to 300, according to Wood Mackenzie Ltd.

Carbon prices could reach 100 euros as soon as 2025, according to Bank of America Corp. At that level, it’s more economical long-term for some sectors using natural gas to capture their emissions rather than paying for permits to release them.

“A carbon price of 100 euros obviously changes the game,” said Simon Virley, vice chairman and head of energy at KPMG LLP and a former U.K. government official responsible for carbon capture.

Norway and the Netherlands are leading the way in Europe, with the U.K. in hot pursuit. This year, the Dutch government announced it will spend $2.5 billion for the first large-scale CCS project on the continent. Norway is investing $1.9 billion, and the U.K. has pledged $1.4 billion over the next decade to create four carbon capture hubs.

These three nations, spread around the North Sea, have a history of fossil-fuel exploration and production. Spending by U.K. oil and gas companies in the North Sea last year fell to the lowest level since 2004. Carbon-capture technology could be key to keeping those industries -- and the sectors they supply -- alive as climate targets tighten.

“We need to see higher carbon prices to make those projects profitable,” said Anders Opedal, chief executive officer of Equinor ASA, which is developing CCS in the U.K., Norway, Germany and the Netherlands. “It actually needs to be more expensive to pollute than actually capture and store.”

(to be continued)

Translation 

（彭博社）- 飛漲的碳價格和關於氣候變化威脅的“紅色信號”警告正在為一項收集和消除溫室氣體排放的技術提供新的動力，以便可以埋藏它們。

據瑞士信貸集團 稱，如果這些埋藏工具用於減少重工業污染，它的市場可能達到 2 萬億美元。碳價在過去一年翻了一番多，價格將在本世紀中期達到 100 歐元（118 美元），隨著各政府努力實現淨零碳，收集技術終於成為主流。

歐洲的碳排放成本從未如此之高，而且還會繼續上升，面臨創造一個臨界點，使防止排放成為可行的經濟替代方案。收集碳排放技術已經在北美和澳大利亞使用，並且正在英國、荷蘭和挪威有大型開發項目。

國際能源署(IEA)的使用收集碳排和儲存負責人 Samantha McCulloch表示：“碳定價正在推動行業盡快採用該技術。” “全球不斷增長的 CCUS 項目組合對於完善這些技術、降低其成本和支持其擴大規模非常重要。”

據國際能源署稱，碳收集技術已經存在了幾十年，並被用於一些行業，但它仍然很昂貴- 每噸水泥生產和發電的除碳成本高達 120 美元。成本取決於項目的位置和使用的技術。相比之下，目前的污染許可證成本約為每噸 55 歐元。

該除碳過程從化石燃料中吸出二氧化碳，對其進行壓縮、運輸，然後將其儲存在已枯竭的海底油田中。根據 Wood Mackenzie Ltd. 的數據，自 2019 年以來，全球計劃中的項目數量增加了六倍，達到 300 個。

據美國銀行稱，除碳價格最早可能在 2025 年達到 100 歐元。在這個水平上，對於一些行業來說, 使用天然氣來按住碳排放，比長期支付排放許可費的做法更經濟。

KPMG LLP副董事長兼能源主管、亦是負責碳收集的前英國政府官員Simon Virley說: “100 歐元的碳價顯然改變了遊戲規則” 。

挪威和荷蘭在歐洲處於領先地位，英國緊隨其後。今年，荷蘭政府宣布將斥資 25 億美元用於非洲大陸第一個大型 CCS 項目。挪威投資 19 億美元，英國承諾在未來 10 年投資 14 億美元建立四個碳收集中心。

這三個國家分佈在北海周圍，有化石燃料勘探和生產的歷史。英國石油和天然氣公司去年在北海的開支降至 2004 年以來的最低水平。隨著氣候目標的收緊，碳收集技術可能是保持這些行業, 及受它支援的行業的生存關鍵。

在英國、挪威、德國和荷蘭開發 CCS 的 Equinor ASA 首席執行官Anders Opedal說:“我們需要看到更高的碳價格，以使這些項目有盈利”; “需要看到做成染污比實際收集和儲存污染更昂貴的事實。”

（待續）

Notes:

a. CCUS is the abbreviation for “carbon capture, utilization and storage” while CCS is the abbreviation of "carbon capture and storage".  CCUS is an important emissions reduction technology that can be applied across the energy system. (https://www.iea.org/fuels-and-technologies/carbon-capture-utilisation-and-storage)

b. KPMG International Limited is an Anglo-Dutch multinational professional services network, and is one of the Big Four accounting organizations

c. KPMG LLP operates as an audit firm. The Firm offers accounting, auditing, internal audit, compliance, corporate recovery, forensic accounting, assurance, tax, risk management, and financial advisory services. A limited liability partnership (LLP) is a partnership in which some or all partners (depending on the jurisdiction) have limited liabilities.

d. Equinor ASA  is a Norwegian state-owned multinational energy company. It is primarily a petroleum company, operating in over thirty countries with investments in renewable energy too.