oa Effects of CCS Deployment on Fossil Fuel Demand and Renewable Energy Diffusion

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is believed to have a strong potential for reducing impacts from fossil fuel consumption on climate change. The inclusion of CCS into Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in COP 16 is expected to mobilize global adoption of CCS, especially in developing countries where fossil fuel remains a cheaper alternative to meet fast growing energy demands. While fossil fuel demand may be supported with global deployment of CCS, concerns on energy security is likely to intensify competition between coal, oil, and gas as reliable sources of energy. For GCC countries, there is a strong need to understand the implication of large scale CCS deployment on demands for coal, natural gas, crude oil, and renewable energy.

To address the complex issues at hand, we are working on the following research subjects; identifying socially optimal CCS regulation scheme taking into account CCS for CDM and the use of CO2 for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR), identifying optimal regulatory scope of CCS in Abu Dhabi taking into account variation in CO2 capture cost and energy penalty across industries, identifying substitution between renewable energy and fossil-fuel (including oil, gas, and coal) with CCS in the regional level taking into account concerns on energy security.