Italien : November 13, 2009

Among the issues discussed in L’Aquila at the G8 meeting this past July was disposal of CO₂ emissions produced as a result of electricity generation.  The G8 has decided to create a Global CSS Institute in Canberra, Australia to further study the matter.  CSS is an acronym for “Capture, Sequestration and Storage” of carbon emissions which is considered to be principally responsible for global warming.

The G8 intends on improving and developing existing technologies with the purpose of minimizing CO₂ emissions into the atmosphere. 

Sixty percent of all CO₂ emission is generated by humans.  Using technology already developed by the petro-chemical industry, the production of CO₂ is formed in three areas – pre-combustion, post-combustion and ossi-combustion.  During the pre-combustion stage, CO₂ is removed from the fossil fuel prior to burning.  In the post-combustion stage, it is possible to separate CO₂ from exhaust or smoke produced through combustion of fossil fuels.  In the ossi-combustion stage, the fossil fuel is burned in pure oxygen state rather than air.  The extraction of the CO₂ is, of course, only the first part of the solution as it represents only the separation of carbonic anhydride while the second and third parts consist of transport and storage of CO₂.

The message of the G8 is quite clear.  While it realizes that renewable or low CO₂ technology is worthy of pursuit, we cannot abandon traditional fossil fuel means of generating electricity without severely impacting the global economy.  Accordingly, the world must develop a safe and economical means of dealing with CO₂ production.  Currently, the G8 sees that solution as being CSS.