Qatar has awarded Samsung C&T a contract to build a facility to remove up to 4.1 million tons of CO2 a year.
The announcement comes just ahead of the COP30 conference in Brazil, where ‘energy realists’ are once again likely to push back against stricter climate goals.
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects can be a useful way to clean up heavy industries where decarbonizing is hard. Qatar aims to have 11 million tons per year of CCS capacity in place by 2035. Saudi Arabia is building a similar amount, while Kuwait, Oman, and the UAE are also developing projects. Some will reinject the captured carbon back into oil wells to help maintain production levels.
Last year, global emissions hit a record 53.2 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent. Against that backdrop, the world’s 64 million tonnes of CCS capacity now in place made a tiny contribution.