The economic evaluation of the benefits and costs of carbon capture and storage

Abstract

Carbon capture and storage has received a lot of attention in recent years due to its attractiveness as a potential solution for climate stabilisation. Since it is based on a suite of mature, well known technologies, most of the cost reductions have already occurred. Recently adopted social cost of carbon figures to advise policies in the USA and Canada currently point towards lower benefits than costs from carbon capture and storage, but not always by a wide margin. It is difficult to make a case for large-scale deployment under these conditions, but they are subject to change as strands of the economic literature support significantly higher social cost of carbon estimates and upcoming commercial applications of carbon capture and storage to power generation may prove economically viable.