'Yes' was the view that most speakers expressed at a COP 17 side event, although South Africa must remember CCS is a marathon, not a sprint.

CCS will work in South Africa, but it will take some time. A key message from the event, hosted by the Department of Energy in South Africa was that South Africa needs to work with international partners. The comprehensive, day-long event was broken up into three sessions focused on:

• the challenges and opportunities for CCS in South Africa;
• how CCS fits into the global climate change mitigation; and
• whether developing countries are ready for CCS. 

Challenges and opportunities

The first session covered specific discussions from South Africa, Saudi Arabia and Norway. It also included a financing perspective from Standard Bank. The panel discussed the costs of CCS in great detail and addressed a number of cost questions from the audience.

South Africa Department of Energy Minister, Dipuo Peters said the country is leveraging international experience and partnerships and referred to a recent South African delegation visit to Norway.

Bjorn-Erik Haugan, CEO of Gassnova, a prominent state-owned Norwegian CCS company, warned of CCS fatigue and reminded Peters to be careful not to see CCS as a quick fix, but as a long haul commitment. He said: “CCS is a marathon, not a sprint." 

Can CCS deliver on its promises in the fight against climate change?

The second session looked at CCS within the context of international climate change mitigation. Presentations were made by the South African Centre for CCS (SACCCS), the International Energy Agency (IEA), Global CCS Institute, UNIDO and Alstom.

Tony Surridge of SACCCS set the scene on South Africa and its current energy portfolio, pointing out that South Africa is a coal-based economy. Brendan Beck, also of SACCCS, presented along the same lines the day before – his presentation can be viewed here.

We then heard from Elina Levina of the IEA, who emphasised the role of CCS in mitigating climate change and urged both developed and developing countries to move faster with project deployment. She also talked about challenges, pointing a finger at policy and financial issues and bringing the conversation to the possible inclusion of CCS under the Clean Development Mechanism. 

Global CCS Institute CEO Brad Page also presented, giving an overview of global project status. His presentation is available at the bottom of this blog.

Gwen Andrews from Alstom gave a presentation looking at CCS from an industry perspective. Alstom is involved with first and second generation CCS projects in China, the UK and United States. Andrews said that she sees China as a key place for CCS development and emphasised the company’s involvement there.

She finished her presentation on an upbeat note, saying that “CCS is cost competitive and will be ready for deployment in the 2020s".

Are developing countries ready for CCS?

The last session asked the question of how a developing country like South Africa can get a project up and running. Presentations in this session included those from SACCCS, the Institute and the World Bank. Representatives of Eskom and Sasol, two of South Africa’s largest energy companies, also spoke.

Barry MacColl of Eskom said the company will be building two new coal-fired power plants which will be CCS Ready. This was followed by questions from the audience about the implementation of CCS Ready and additional costs incurred by Eskom.

Jaco Liebenberg of Sasol also presented the company’s work, including on coal-to-liquid projects and their potential for CCS and on a study the company is involved with in India.
 
The event concluded with remarks by Department of Energy Deputy Director-General T. Maqubela who reiterated the commitment that South Africa has for both climate change and CCS, stating that political will is needed, domestically and globally.