UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Ed Miliband said that he saw coal playing a role in the energy mix in the future, with the assistance of carbon capture and storage (CCS), because the coal of the future must be clean.

“We know that there is no solution to the problem of climate change, either in developed or developing countries, without a solution to the problem of coal, and turning it from a dirty fuel of the past into a clean fuel of the future,” stated Miliband.

However, he added that there was a lot of scientific, test and demonstration work that needed to be done in order to convince the public of the safety of CCS technology, as well as its economic feasibility.

Addressing delegates gathered at the South African centre for carbon capture and storage, in Johannesburg, Miliband said that public acceptability of CCS would need to be gained through rigorous and convincing scien- tific work.

“It is also important in the building of new coal-fired power stations, and in the geological and technological processes, that we have the right standards in place, and that’s another thing that the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum will be looking at – how we can coordinate the standards that exist, so that we can have a coherent view about how CCS can be taken forward,” Miliband explained.

The British High Commission in South Africa is one of the core members, providing funding for the South African centre for CCS, and Miliband congra- tulated the centre on the work it was doing.

The centre, led by Dr Tony Surridge, was focused on drawing up a comprehensive CCS storage atlas for South Africa, which would show in detail potential storage sites for sequestrated carbon dioxide.

While technologies for CCS could be globally developed, locally appropriate knowledge was vital when it came to identifying potential storage sites. The South African storage atlas project was started in 2008, and the completed atlas is expected by mid-2010.

Following the completion of the storage atlas, the centre would aim at commissioning a test injection site by 2016, and hoped to have a demonstration plant up and running by 2020, which would inject some 100 000t of carbon into a storage site. The target of 2025 was set for commercial operation of a fully integrated CCS plant.

CCS was viewed as a vital technology if global greenhouse-gas emission reduction targets were to be met, particularly in South Africa, where some 90% of the country’s electricity is generated from coal.

It was important technology for developed nations, which were responsible for most of the historical greenhouse gas emissions responsible for global warming. However, it was expected that about 75% of the future growth in emissions would come from developing nations, making it imperative technology for emerging economies as well.

“We think that developed countries have a responsibility to drive forward and test out this technology,” said Miliband, but added that it was also important to show how this technology could be used in developing countries. “That’s why the Central Energy Fund initiative is so important. “An atlas is such an important piece of work to make that possible,” he added.

The UK has made a commitment and set aside funding to establish four demonstration plants in the UK in the near future. These would test differ- ent technologies, namely pre- combustion and postcombustion CCS technologies.

The UK has also set out a framework stating that any new-build coal-fired power stations in the country should demonstrate 25% CCS capa- bility, and when the techno- logy is proven and accepted, all coal-fired power stations in operation in 2025 should be CCS compliant.

“I think that’s the most ambitious framework for any country in the world,” Miliband noted.

To watch a video in which UK Secretary of State for Energy & Climate Change Ed Miliband speaks at the South African centre for carbon capture and storage, click here.