Carbon capture and sequestration: how much does this uncertain option affect near-term policy choices?

Policy makers as well as many economists recognize geological Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) as a key option to avoid costly emission reduction. While an extreme perspective is to envision CCS as a magic bullet to solve the issue of climate change, the economics perspective is more balanced and see it as a part of a portfolio of mitigation actions. Besides, as any novel mitigation technology, CCS can be implemented with a twofold purpose; on one side it can substitute some other technological efforts to reach a given environmental target. On the other side, it offers the opportunity to go for additional emission reductions andreach a "safer" climate target. In order to balance these twopossible utilizations of CCS and assess their respective effects onearly policystrategies, we undertake a twofold numerical experiment. First, a cost-efficiency analysis is undertaken where CCS sole effect is substitution of other efforts. This is followed by a cost-benefit analysis where both purposes have to be balanced. We find that future availability of CCS is less a reason to relax near-term abatement efforts than what could be inferred from previous analyses. Moreover, cost-benefit analysis indicates that the environmental target should be more ambitious when CCS is included in the picture.