Four years ago, on this day, October 25th, 2021,
On October 25, 2021 the International Renewable Energy Agency published a technical paper on the synergies between CCS and renewables in “reaching zero”. This is an astonishing and categorical failure by IRENA if indeed they ever held any proper ambition for wide scale implementation of renewables. The widely echoed calls for 100% renewables are fundamentally threatened by any CCS applied to fossil fuels or biomass. We should be very concerned at this time to see IRENA defy the fundamentals of its platform.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 416ppm. As of 2025, when this post was published, it is 425ppm. This matters because the more carbon dioxide in the air, the more heat gets trapped. The more heat, the more extreme weather events. You can make it more complicated than that if you want, but really, it’s not. Fwiw, I have a tattoo of the Keeling Curve on my left forearm.
The broader context was that CCS as a “solution” to climate change has been around since the 1970s. There have been various flurries of interest and then physics and economics intervenes – somebody should do a compare and contrast of CCS and hydrogen hypes (they’re coupled at present).
The specific context was that CCS wants all the friends it can get. What IRENA gets out of it, not so clear.
What I think we can learn from this is that technounicorns will get love from all sorts of places.
What happened next – the CCS bandwagon has rolled on. When the wheels will fall off is anyone’s guess…
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
References and further reading
Climate Warriors and Flagships from Hell – OffGuardian
Also on this day:
October 25, 1982 – Exxon and “Climate Processes & Climate Sensitivity” symposium