Global CCS: Financial sector funding crucial for CCS projects

At the London-based conference hosted by the CCS Institute, participates acknowledged that the financial sector can unlock and facilitate capital flows supporting the scale-up of CCS.

“Global investment in energy was around $1.8 trillion in 2018, with limited investment in commercial scale CCS facilities. Perceived and actual risk are currently undermining and limiting capital flows into CCS deployment,” said Brad Page, CEO of the Global CCS Institute.

“Addressing market risk through government policy action will be key to bring more large-scale CCS projects in operation. In addition, highlighting the environmental, social and governance features of CCS reinforces its crucial role in decarbonisation efforts, and helps to unlock investment.”

Global markets and the broad financial sector have a powerful role to play in driving the transition to a net-zero economy and supporting clean growth opportunities. With the development of new sustainable investment products, as well as provision of traditional project finance, the sector can unlock the capital needed to support the scaling up of CCS.

Speaking at the event, Zoë Knight, Managing Director and Group Head of the HSBC Centre of Sustainable Finance, said, “CCS is an important and proven technology that is needed to support the energy transition and our efforts to significantly cut emissions from hard-to-abate sectors.”

“Significant investments are necessary to accelerate the deployment of this technology. For this, it is crucial to generate interest from the financial community and present the opportunities behind investment in low-carbon technologies such as CCS.”

According to a recent Institute report, the policies currently in place are insufficient to accelerate the deployment of CCS to the scale and at the rate required to meet global climate objectives.