Facing growing scrutiny over their contributions to climate change, polluting industries are increasingly looking to the ocean as a potential dumping ground for their carbon dioxide waste. Rather than phase out fossil fuels, oil, gas, and petrochemical companies claim they can, instead, capture some of their carbon dioxide emissions and inject them underground or under the seabed. But this carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology has yet to be proven at scale, and its buildout poses a host of environmental, safety, and health risks. The very few offshore CCS projects that exist worldwide today cast serious doubt on the feasibility of CCS, and raise questions about its potential adverse impacts on ecosystems, communities, and the climate. Despite these concerns and uncertainties, fossil fuel giants are proposing to increase offshore CCS at a massive rate, threatening the world’s oceans and delaying real action on climate change.
Our brief, “Deep Trouble: The Risks of Offshore Carbon Capture and Storage,” explores the risks of offshore CCS and explains why this technology is no solution to fossil fuel pollution.
This brief is a first introduction to this growing threat; we will release a longer, more detailed report soon.
Published on June 26th, 2023.