COP23: Bonn meeting to help accelerate climate action

I have just arrived in Bonn to participate as an observer at the COP23 (Conference of the Parties). COP is the name of the UN’s climate negotiations. While the politicians are negotiating; NGOs, research organizations and businesses are observing the negotiations, as well as coming together to discuss and share information on how to accelerate climate action.

Why am I here? I am here to represent SINTEF to share our important research on clean energy solutions and technology. I am also here to learn about how we can better profile our climate-friendly solutions. Our vision is “technology for a better society”. Not only for Norway, but also globally.

One of the technological solutions we are dealing with is carbon capture, transportation and storage. That is why I am traveling with Torund Bryhn, communications director at Gassnova. Gassnova is responsible for realizing a full-scale project on carbon capture and storage in Norway.

NTNU and SINTEF were early on developing CCS. In 1987 Erik Lindeberg and Torleif Holt in SINTEF suggested that CO2 could be captured from offshore power generation stored in geological strata beneath the seabed. Since then, the Trondheim community with actors around the world has increasingly found better and less expensive methods for implementing CCS, and in our new NCCS research center, we will continue to find even smarter, safer and less expensive solutions.

• CCS researchers from all over the world meet in Trondheim in June.

I took these pictures on the way to the conference. Bonn is a beautiful city!

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It is especially exciting that the Norwegian Government has the goal of realizing a CCS Demonstration Project by 2022. The purpose is to create a CCS value chain that paves the way for new CCS projects nationally and internationally. The value chain includes capturing CO2, transporting it via ship to an onshore facility. The CO2 will then be shipped through a pipeline to the Smeaheia area, east of the Troll field in the North Sea. This project will provide new opportunities connected to business development and greenhouse gas reductions.

So this is the backdrop for why we are in Bonn. Can SINTEF and Gassnova, together contribute to solutions that can be used globally?

To meet the targets in the Paris agreement, the world must use carbon capture. The target goal it that the global temperature in 2100 must not be more than 2 degrees higher than it was in 1850. According to the IEA, CCS will help cut 1/6 of CO2 emissions by 2050.

But we cannot wait until 2050 to achieve this. We must start now. We cannot wait.

Tomorrow I’m going to a conference about how innovations can contribute to cut emissions. More tomorrow on this!

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