Developing CCS, carbon capture & storage, is essential

Presently, reducing GHGs emissions is a tough task. Burning coal accounts for more than half of global greenhouse gas emissions from human activity; that is, burning coal is largely responsible for climate change. The roughly 3,000 fossil fuel–fired power plants in North America—Canada, Mexico and the U.S.—emit 6 percent of global greenhouse gases, or nearly as much as all of the European Union. In fact, coal-fired power plants around the globe are the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. However, the world seems to have little interest in restraining coal burning. "Whatever you hear from time to time, a big part of electricity is produced from coal," argued Philippe Joubert, deputy CEO of power equipment manufacturer Alstom at the climate talks here on December 6. "This will continue." It continues to increase, driven largely by China and India. So, capturing the CO2 before it enters the atmosphere is the only real way to tackle such emissions.

However, developing CCS will be at a great cost, so countries, like Africa countries, do not afford it. Most importantly, the Clean Development Mechanism(a part of the Kyoto Protocol)—a way to provide funds from developed to developing countries for emission-reducing infrastructure in return for credit against the developed countries' CO2 emission quotas— will expire, and no new ones will act as successors.