In June, the IFRF’s General Secretary, Professor Mohamed Pourkashanian, attended the 8^th Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM8) meeting as part of a delegation from the Carbon Capture International Test Center Network (ITCN).

Ahead of CEM8, the energy ministers of Canada, China, Norway and the USA, and the heads of delegations from Australia and the European Commission – along with leaders from industry and key organizations – discussed the deployment of CCUS at an event organised by the International Energy Agency (IEA).  The meeting proved to be very interesting, with strong support from all the Minsters confirming that CCUS is a critical part of the clean energy mix for the future.

Ministers and panellists discussed the factors that have attracted investment to current CCUS projects and highlighted the importance of identifying where these factors could link to repeat recent success with CCUS projects.

It was very interesting to hear the views of the US Secretary of State for Energy, Rick Perry, on CCUS: “I don’t believe you can have a real conversation about clean energy without including CCUS. The United States understands the importance of this clean technology and its vital role in the future of energy production”.  He continued by stating: “Our experience with CCUS proves that you can do the right thing for the environment and the economy too.“

The impact of increasing collaboration to accelerate the deployment of CCUS received strong support from the panelists. Jim Carr, Canada’s Minister of Energy, said: “Canada hopes to continue working with domestic and international partners – including through the Clean Energy Ministerial and Mission Innovation – to help us all address the technical and policy challenges around wide-scale implementation of this important technology.”

Finally, the Ministers had detailed discussions about the political leadership involved in securing investment for CCUS projects.

It was good to note that the leaders recognised that in order to achieve significant reductions in CO₂ emissions, CCUS will have to be an essential part of the available technology.

As a result, an ‘Energy Efficiency Investment Toolkit’, produced by the G20 Energy Efficiency Finance Task Group (EEFTG), was launched – click here to view.