Selected Events in 2005
International Conference on Clean Coal Technologies and CO2 Sequestration in Berlin
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September 28, 2005.
At a press conference held during a meeting of the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF) at the German Ministry of Economics and Labor (BMWA) in Berlin, U.S. Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Energy Mark Maddox, BMWA State Secretary Georg Wilhelm Adamowitsch, and Australia's Deputy Secretary of Industry, Tourism, and Resources John Ryan brief press on progress made by member states in developing and deploying technology to curtail greenhouse gases.
The CSLF is an international climate change body that focuses on the development of improved cost-effective technologies for the separation and capture of carbon dioxide for its transport and long-term safe storage.
Press Conference Statement
Mark Maddox
Chairman
CSLF Policy Group
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Energy
U.S. Department of Energy
Berlin, Germany
September 28, 2005
Thank you, Minister Adamowitsch for your introduction.
On behalf of the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum, I want publicly to thank you, the participating staff, the Ministry and the Government of Germany for so generously hosting the inter-ministerial executive meetings of the Policy and Technical groups.
I also want to acknowledge the presence of Deputy Director General for Energy Hartmut Schneider, whose cooperation was complete in arranging for the successful conduct of these meetings.
I must advise you regrettably that Vice Chairman Garribba, of Italy, who had been scheduled to join us for this press conference, will be unable to attend.
When the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum was organized two years ago, there were numerous expressions of skepticism about carbon dioxide capture and storage as something almost approaching science day-dreaming, if not science fiction.
Today, after study and thought, these concepts are widely recognized as feasible and a matter of applied technology.
This week the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has put the final touches on a Special Report on Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage. It finds that these technologies can make significant contributions to stabilization and significantly lower the costs to all nations of achieving stabilization.
This report will be presented this fall to the 11th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Now the Forum – itself an international partnership – is being designated by other international partnerships as the agent of cooperation and collaboration between and among the developed, transitional and developing nations in the accelerated development and deployment of technology to curtail greenhouse gases.
Among these are:
• The Mainz Declaration on energy security, pollution and greenhouse gas emissions between the United States and Germany;
• The U.S. – E.U. Summit’s joint statement of intentions on Energy Security, Economic Growth and the Environment;
• The G-8 Gleneagles Plan of Action on Climate Change, Clean Energy and Sustainable Development;
• And, numerous bi-lateral and multi-lateral agreements, including the recent Asia-Pacific Partnership for Clean Development and Climate which involves six CSLF members.
It’s also noteworthy that the European Commission has elevated the technologies of carbon dioxide capture and storage to the top tier of research priorities, and also sponsors some of the most ambitious CSLF demonstrations.
Until now, CSLF has labored quietly and out of sight at the basic level of marshalling, sorting and organizing the resources and knowledge to win recognition and accelerate development.
Soon, however, the world will be hearing more and more about carbon dioxide capture and storage.
And so, we have asked the press of this world capital here today to offer a briefing on our purpose and an update on our progress.
In essence, this press conference marks our formal coming of age.
We of the Forum will leave it to our nations’ diplomats to settle the terms on which the world will seek stabilization of greenhouse gases in this century.
Our job is to deliver the technologies that will contribute significantly to stabilization, and in this responsibility we are moving forward at a strong and steady pace.
Our goals include:
• Accelerating development and deployment of low-cost capture and storage;
• Establishing a framework of law, regulation, practices and institutions that nations can consult to ensure safe, long-term storage;
• And, achieving full international recognition of capture and storage as a way of dealing with greenhouse gases.;
It’s against this background that the Policy and Technical Groups meet here this week to prepare items of business for the next Ministerial Meeting.
Last year the Ministers endorsed:
• A technology roadmap that sees commercial deployment beginning at, or shortly after, 2014;
• A comprehensive governance report entitled “Considerations on Regulatory Issues for Carbon Capture and Storage Projects;”
• And 10 research, development and demonstration projects – five dealing mostly with the technologies of CO2 capture and five with the important of questions of storage, including measuring, monitoring and storage.
This week our executive preparation for Ministerial action includes:
• Addition of South Korea and Saudi Arabia to membership;
• Policy Group task force reports on public outreach, financial issues and criteria for new members;
• Technical Group task force reports on gaps in knowledge to be filled by research;
• And, eight additional projects, including two each in China and India, the first direct involvement of key developing countries with greenhouse gases;
In addition, CSLF members are eligible to participate as partners in FutureGen, the coal-based U.S. project to create the prototype of a no-emissions energy center for the 21st century. It will produce electric power and low-carbon liquid fuel or hydrogen while capturing and storing the carbon dioxide which such production releases.
Secretary of Energy Bodman last month sent to each of his member-country counterparts a formal invitation to participate.
To date, much of the Forum’s hardest work has been done by member representatives from other nations and under the guidance of my co-chairmen.
Co-chairman John Ryan, Australia’s Deputy Secretary of Industry, Tourism and Resources , has joined us today.
In addition, John recently was selected to be the next chair of the International Energy Agency’s Governing Board.
John will speak now, after which each of us will take questions.
Additional information:
• Statement by BMWA State Secretary Georg Wilhelm Adamowitsch (Deutsch)
• Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum in Brief - English | German (pdf)
• Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum Projects - English (pdf)