A roadmap for carbon capture and storage in the UK Clair Gough a, *, Sarah Mander a , Stuart Haszeldine b a Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, Pariser Building, University of Manchester, PO Box 88, Manchester, M60 1QD, UK b School of GeoSciences, Edinburgh University, EH9 3JW, Scotland, UK 1. Introduction With the publication of the fourth assessment report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, it is now clear that carbon emissions from fossil fuel combustion, industrial pro- cesses and from land use change are forcing an increase in atmospheric CO 2 concentrations (IPCC, 2007) and consequent acidification of world oceans (Royal Society, 2005). The highly influential Stern report made initial projections of future economic costs of mitigation and adaptation and clearly showed the cost-effectiveness of early action to reduce CO 2 emissions and hence atmospheric CO 2 (Stern, 2006). The UK government has persistently stated that the UK wishes to take and keep a leadership position in EU and world efforts to mitigate climate change (Blair, 2004), as demonstrated by the world’s first domestic legislation to make CO 2 reduction targets legally binding on successive governments (DEFRA, 2007). The current UK goals are a 60% reduction in CO 2 emissions by 2050 (with recent recommendations from the Climate Change Committee for an 80% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050), an interim target of 26– 32% reduction by 2020 and five-yearly ‘carbon budgets’. Achieving these milestones will require fundamental changes in how energy demand is conceived, coupled with low carbon fuels and alternative forms of supply. This is a global challenge; the Stern report (Stern, 2006) states that CO 2 levels of 450 ppm will be reached by 2035, with a 77–99% chance of exceeding 2 8C warming and hence the commonly adopted definition of a dangerous level of climate change. The challenge could be even more severe than Stern predicts with recently published research highlighting that the rate of growth in CO 2 emissions between 2000 and 2005 exceeds the worst case IPCC 2001 scenario (Raupach et al., 2007). Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology is endorsed by the IPCC and UK government as a key mitigation option for reducing the emissions from stationary sources such as fossil fuelled power stations (IPCC, 2005; POST, 2005). UK support for CCS was announced in the 2007 Budget through ‘‘a competition to develop the UK’s first full-scale demonstration of carbon capture and storage’’ (HM Treasury, 2007), which was launched in November 2007 and, at the time of writing, is reviewing four short-listed proposals to the competition. Most new technologies face barriers to their deployment and technology roadmaps are becoming more commonly used for identifying obstacles and opportunities facing the development of new energy technologies. This paper presents a technology roadmap for the deployment of CCS in the UK, developed through a stakeholder engagement process. Following a brief introduction to the concept of technology roadmaps, we describe the aims and process underpinning a roadmapping workshop held in 2007. The results of the workshop are summarised in three graphics, in the form of CCS roadmaps, representing the externalities relevant to the development of CCS in the UK, and goals relevant to the short- International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control 4 (2010) 1–12 ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received 11 December 2008 Received in revised form 9 October 2009 Accepted 12 October 2009 Available online 29 November 2009 Keywords: Stakeholder engagement Climate change mitigation Energy technology ABSTRACT Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology has been endorsed by the IPCC and the UK government as a key mitigation option but remains on the cusp of wide-scale commercial deployment. Here we present a technology roadmap for CCS, depicted in terms of external factors and short- and long-term pathways for its development, moving from a demonstration to commercialisation era. The roadmap was been developed through a two-phase process of stakeholder engagement; the second phase of this, a high level stakeholder workshop, is documented here. This approach has provided a unique overview of the current status, potential and barriers to CCS deployment in the UK. In addition to the roadmap graphics and more detailed review, five consensus conclusions emerging from the workshop are presented. These describe the need for a monetary CO 2 value and the financing of carbon capture and storage schemes; the lack of technical barriers to the deployment of demonstration scale CCS plant; the role of demonstration projects in developing a robust regulatory framework; key storage issues; the need for a long-term vision in furthering both the technical and non-technical development of CCS. ß 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 0161 306 3447; fax: +44 0161 3273. E-mail address: Clair.gough@manchester.ac.uk (C. Gough). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijggc 1750-5836/$ – see front matter ß 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijggc.2009.10.014