本文转自《Scientific American》发表的题为“We Need to Capture Carbon to Fight Climate Change”的报道。
作者： Madison Freeman, David Yellen
原文链接：https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/we-need-to-capture-carbon-to-fight-climate-change/
Grabbing CO2as it exits smokestacks is key to fighting climate change.
当二氧化碳从烟囱里冒出来时，抓住它是应对气候变化的关键。
The conclusion of the Paris Agreement in 2015, in which almost every nation committed to reduce their carbon emissions, was supposed to be a turning point in the fight against climate change. But many countries have already fallen behind their goals, and the U.S. has now announced it will withdraw from the agreement. Meanwhile emissions worldwide continue to rise.
2015年达成的《巴黎协定》(Paris Agreement)被认为是对抗气候变化的一个转折点。在该协定中，几乎所有国家都承诺减少碳排放。但许多国家已经落后于他们的目标，美国现在宣布将退出协议。与此同时，全球排放量继续上升。
The only way to make up ground is to aggressively pursue an approach that takes advantage of every possible strategy to reduce emissions. The usual suspects, such as wind and solar energy and hydropower, are part of this effort, but it must also include investing heavily in carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS)—a cohort of technologies that pull carbon dioxide from smokestacks, or even from the air, and convert it into useful materials or store it underground.
唯一的方法是积极寻求一种利用各种可能的减排策略的方法。通常来说如风能，太阳能和水力发电，都是这项工作的一部分，但它还必须包括大量投资碳捕获、利用和储存（CCUS） - 一系列从烟囱中吸收二氧化碳的技术，甚至从空中，将其转化为有用的材料或存储在地下。
Although CCUS has been opposed as too expensive and unproved, recent gains have made it far more effective. Improvements such as chemical compounds that are more efficient at latching onto carbon could drive the cost down from $100 per ton of captured carbon in 2016 to $20 per ton by 2025, according to a 2016 article in Science. Start-ups are also developing new tactics, among them the transformation of trapped carbon into fertilizer, which could spur further savings.
虽然CCUS一直被反对。因为其过于昂贵和未经证实，但近期的收益使其更加有效。根据2016年“科学”（Science）杂志的一篇文章，改进化学化合物如果能更有效地锁定碳，可以将成本从2016年每吨捕获的碳100美元降低到2025年每吨20美元。初创企业也正在开发新的策略，其中包括将碳捕获转化为肥料，这可能会刺激进一步的节约。
Without CCUS, the level of cuts needed to keep global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit)—the upper limit allowed in the Paris Agreement—probably cannot be achieved, according to the International Energy Agency. By 2050 carbon capture and storage must provide at least 13 percent of the reductions needed to keep warming in check, the agency calculates.
根据国际能源机构的数据，如果没有CCUS，将全球变暖控制在2摄氏度（3.6华氏度）所需的削减水平 - “巴黎协定”允许的上限 - 可能无法实现。该机构计算，到2050年，碳捕获和储存必须提供至少13％的减少量，以控制变暖。
Three primary CCUS paths lead us to this goal: retrofitting existing power plants to strip carbon dioxide from the exhaust produced by fossil-fuel electricity plants; reducing emissions in industries that cannot run on renewable energy; and directly removing carbon from the air. Cutting emissions from existing electric power stations with CCUS could be made more appealing in a future with a circular carbon economy, in which captured carbon could be resold and recycled for other uses—for instance, serving as a raw material for making concrete or plastics.
三条主要的CCUS路径引领我们实现这一目标：改造现有发电厂，从化石燃料发电厂排放的废气中去除二氧化碳；减少不能使用可再生能源的行业的排放量，并直接从空气中去除碳。在具有循环碳经济的未来，使用CCUS减少现有电站的排放可以更具吸引力，其中捕获的碳可以转售并再循环用于其他用途 - 例如，用作制造混凝土或塑料的原材料。
CCUS technologies can also help decarbonize emissions in heavy industry—including production of cement, refined metals and chemicals—which accounts for almost a quarter of U.S. emissions. In addition, direct carbon-removal technology—which captures and converts carbon dioxide from the air rather than from a smokestack—can offset emissions from industries that cannot readily implement other clean technology, such as agriculture.
CCUS技术还可以帮助重工业的排放脱碳 - 包括水泥，精炼金属和化学品的生产 - 这几乎占美国排放量的四分之一。此外，直接除碳技术 - 捕获和转化空气中的二氧化碳而不是烟囱 - 可以抵消那些无法轻易实施其他清洁技术（如农业）的行业的排放。
The basic idea of carbon capture has faced a lot of opposition. Skepticism has come from climate deniers, who see it as a waste of money, and from passionate supporters of climate action, who fear that it would be used to justify continued reliance on fossil fuels. Both groups are ignoring the recent advances and the opportunity they present. By limiting investment in decarbonization, the world will miss a major avenue for reducing emissions both in the electricity sector and in a variety of industries. CCUS can also create jobs and profits from what was previously only a waste material by creating a larger economy around carbon.
碳捕获的基本思想面临很多反对意见。持怀疑态度的人认为这是在浪费金钱，而持肯定态度的人则是气候行动的热情支持者，他们担心这会被用来证明继续依赖化石燃料是合理的。两个团体都忽略了最近的进展和他们提出的机会。通过限制对脱碳的投资，全球将失去减少电力部门和各种行业排放的主要途径。 CCUS还可以通过围绕碳创造更大的经济来创造就业机会和利润。
For CCUS to succeed, the federal government must kick in funding for basic research and development and offer incentives such as tax breaks for carbon polluters who adopt the technology. The Trump administration has repeatedly tried to slash energy technology R&D, with the Department of Energy's CCUS R&D cut by as much as 76 percent in proposed budgets. But this funding must be protected.
为了使CCUS取得成功，联邦政府必须为基础研究和开发提供资金，并为采用该技术的碳污染者提供税收减免等激励措施。特朗普政府一再试图削减能源技术研发，能源部的CCUS研发在拟议预算中削减了76％。但这笔资金必须得到保护。
There is hope for doing that. The FUTURE Act, the provisions of which were passed with the February 2018 budget bill and which was championed by a bipartisan coalition in the Senate, contains tax incentives that are important steps toward making CCUS economical. The same bipartisan group of senators has proposed the USE IT Act, which would amplify support for CCUS technology by directly funding research and development and by setting up a prize competition to reward deployment.
这样做有希望。 “未来法案”的规定与2018年2月的预算法案一起通过，并得到参议院两党联盟的支持，其中包含税收激励措施，这是使CCUS经济发展的重要步骤。 同一个两党参议员组织提出了USE IT法案，该法案将通过直接资助研究和开发以及设立奖励竞赛以奖励部署来扩大对CCUS技术的支持。
The transition to clean energy has become inevitable. But that transition's ability to achieve deep decarbonization will falter without this wide range of solutions, which must include CCUS.
向清洁能源的过渡已成为必然。 但是，如果没有包括CCUS在内的广泛解决方案，这种转变实现深度脱碳的能力将会下降。
ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)
Madison Freeman
Madison Freeman is a research associate for energy and U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Credit: Nick Higgins
David Yellen
David Yellen is an energy and technology analyst based in Washington, D.C.
Credit: Nick Higgins
