Crown Prince Frederik graced the stage yesterday at an event in Esbjerg, which inaugurated an experiment with technology that pumps carbon dioxide emissions back into the ground, reports DR.
In the ocean not far from the case, a decommissioned oil platform was used to begin pumping the gas under the sea. The CO2 was brought there in large containers on a ship.
The ship can transport 800 tons of the gas at one time. According to DR, this corresponds to the output of just 70 Danes, which raises questions about whether they should eat so much rye bread.
A drop in the ocean
Among those present were representatives of oil companies, including Mads Gade, the Danish representative of the global petrol giant Ineos, who was one of the speakers.
Total Energy is also said to be investing in CCS in the North Sea. The oil companies already have the expertise to extract oil from the ground and are now looking to make money pumping their waste vapors back in.
Critics have drawn attention to the hypocrisy of oil companies making even more money by cashing in on a solution to climate change – a problem they have had a big hand in causing.
Experts say that the amount of carbon dioxide we are able to take out of the atmosphere by CCS is not nearly enough to have a significant impact on climate change.
However, the state is strongly behind the use of the technology.
How it works
Carbon capture and storage essentially does what it says on the tin.
First, carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere must be captured. It is then cooled, which makes it possible to store it in special containers.
The containers are sent to customized oil platforms such as Nini, the platform used in the current experiment, where the gas is safely pumped out of the atmosphere.
The technology is certainly smart. But both Denmark’s Climate Council and the UN’s Climate Panel have reached an agreement that CCS will not be effective in preventing climate change.
The question is therefore why the government insists on using 40 billion kroner of taxpayers’ money to finance it?
Source: The Nordic Page