• Shell ‘Sky’ scenario posits 10,000 CCS installations by 2070

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      Patrick Lavery

      Combustion Industry News Editor

Late last month saw Shell release an outline of a scenario in which the world meets the goal of the Paris Agreement of limiting the global average temperature rise to below 2oC. The Sky scenario envisages net-zero carbon emissions by 2070, by which time worldwide electricity use has risen 500% compared to today, nuclear power has tripled, and there are 10,000 facilities equipped with carbon capture and storage. Interestingly, Shell does not see CCS really taking off until 2040, but extracting so much carbon dioxide through negative emissions that by 2075 the world is at net negative emissions. Liquid hydrocarbon use almost halves between 2020 and 2050, and has fallen by 90% of today’s consumption by 2070. Hydrogen is used for heavy transport and electric vehicles are used for lighter transport. The company is at pains to stress that the scenario is not a projection of what will happen, but more of a thought experiment about what it would take to achieve the goal of the Paris Agreement. The most important change needed for that to happen, the company believes, is government support.