Carbon capture and storage (CCS) involves the capture of greenhouse gases as they are produced, and the transport, storage and monitoring of these gases to ensure they are not released into the atmosphere. CCS has the advantage of maintaining the status quo of using fossil fuels to generate energy, together with the supply chains and electricity grids that have evolved around these technologies, and into which significant capital costs have been invested. That said, whilst CCS technology is commercially available (for example in enhanced oil recovery techniques), the capture, transport and storage of carbon for climate change mitigation purposes has not been widely deployed and tested at a large commercial scale. This means that the technology associated with the capture, transport and storage of carbon dioxide is highly capital intensive and any investment comes with significant risk. To be effective, the ultimate store of carbon needs to be perpetual (i.e. it has the possibility of lasting forever), which introduces significant questions (and risk) associated with the engineering of stores, the legal and regulatory framework in which they operate and associated risks to future generations, as well as the ongoing monitoring and management of stores.
