CCUS ‘crucial to driving global decarbonisation agenda’

The head of the Organising Committee of the World Energy Congress believes the utilisation of carbon is an area that needs development

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There must be a greater focus on the business case for utilising carbon that is captured from fossil fuel power plants.

That’s the view of Fatima Al-Foora Al Shamsi, CEO of the Organising Committee of the World Energy Congress, who believes carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) is crucial to drive the global decarbonisation agenda but progress on developing the technology is slow.

She told ELN the utilisation of CO2 is an area that needs development and if successful, this could have less of an impact on countries looking to get rid of existing resources and give them security of supply while having a better impact on the environment.

The assistant undersecretary for electricity, water and future energy affairs at the UAE’s Ministry of Energy & Industry said another area of challenge is the development of storage, which she believes is not progressing as fast as expected.

Ms Al-Foora said technology must support any regulation that is put in place to tackle climate change and ensure a quicker transition towards a low carbon economy.

She told ELN: “Regulation will not work alone, technology must support that because you can put any regulation but if the technology is not aligned with the vision of the decarbonisation, then we’ll end with energy crisis or energy gap between energy demand and what is actually there on the market. So it’s an overall plan and strategy that must also focus on R&D.

“To succeed in decarbonising the sector, we need not only the government to take the steps, it’s also business has to be there, also the individual of the society has to participate in making a decision of also reducing the consumption of energy.”

Ms Al-Foora said the 24th World Energy Congress – the World Energy Council’s global flagship event – taking place in Abu Dhabi in September this year, will address some of the global challenges.

The event aims to bring together international energy stakeholders, including governments, private and state corporations as well as academia and media.

Topics being covered include digitalisation and future energy systems, energy storage, nuclear, cybersecurity and renewables.

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