WASHINGTON — Oil and gas producers talk up technological breakthroughs they say will soon allow the world to drill and burn fossil fuels without worsening global warming. U.S. climate envoy John Kerry says the time is here for the industry to prove it can make the technology happen — at scale, affordably and quickly — to stave off climate disaster.
“What they’re banking on is that they’re going to be able to do the emissions capture,” Kerry said of oil and gas companies. He ticked off the stages of operations that would involve. “Technologies capture CO2 emissions at source or directly from the air,” Saudi state oil giant Aramco says, describing the carbon then being stored safely underground or turned into “useful products.”
“I just think it’s foolish to think that we can keep pumping the stuff, CO2, methane, into the atmosphere, and that at some point we’ll be able to capture it,” Schlissel said. Going into November’s climate talks, al-Jaber is calling for a phase-out of ’’fossil fuel emissions,” leaving it ambiguous whether he means a ramping up of technology or is open to some production cuts.