A key solution to climate change isn't happening – and that's good

Capturing and storing the CO₂ that is generated from burning biomass isn't going to save the planet any time soon, says Michael Le Page.

Aslbek J.

You have probably seen charts showing that carbon dioxide levels and global temperatures will fall at the end of the century. How will this happen? The idea is simple: we grow plants, burn them for energy, and then collect and store the CO₂ underground. Problem solved! However, this idea, called BECCS (bioenergy with carbon capture and storage), is becoming a big failure. It is very expensive, bad for nature, and it does not even work. In fact, it creates more CO₂ instead of reducing it in the near future. Scientists first thought of BECCS in 2001 in Sweden. In 2005, climate experts used this theoretical idea to create plans to lower global temperatures after they get too high. By 2014, it became the "official solution" to save the world in major international reports. For a short time, people believed it would work. In 2015, the Drax energy company in the UK said it would change a huge coal power plant to burn wood pellets and store the CO₂. Ten years later, the plant burns wood but does not collect any carbon. The company has stopped its plans. The world's biggest green project of this type is now dead. Other small projects exist, but BECCS is not growing because governments do not want to give the huge amounts of money needed. Experts say it is incredibly expensive. It might look like bad news that we are not using this technology, but it is actually good because it does not work. Computers show that it could take 150 years for BECCS to successfully remove CO₂ from the air. Also, it will make electricity three times more expensive. Why doesn't it work? BECCS takes CO₂ from trees and tries to store it underground, but a lot of gas escapes during the process. For example, tree roots are left to rot in the ground, which releases carbon. Also, burning wood creates twice as much carbon as burning gas, and the technology needs too much energy to run. Some people think using wood is fine if we replant the forests. However, cutting down trees destroys a natural climate solution that we already have. Right now, we do not know exactly how to lower CO₂ levels without BECCS, but we must focus on stopping them from rising. We need to move toward wind and solar energy as fast as possible.