# Transcript

COMMENTATOR:
Carbon capture is where you strip CO2 from power station chimneys and pump that CO2 into porous underground rocks where it remains locked up, supposedly forever. Sally Benson from Stanford University, a UN adviser, is a leading expert on Carbon Capture and Storage.
SALLY BENSON:
I started working in 1998 on Carbon Capture and Storage and when I first heard about it I thought it sounded like a really ridiculous idea, but as I got into it more deeply I actually became persuaded that one day it would play an important role in decarbonisation of the energy system.
I did see it as an option of last resort, that something that after we've tried all the things like PB and wind, and we did as much as we could of those, then that’s when CCS would come along, so that would be, you know, in the 20, 30's, 40's, 50's was my view. Of course everything turned out quite differently.
MAN:
Well a lot of governments, including the UK government, still have Carbon Capture and Storage as a main plank of their energy supply system, in the UK, for instance, after 2030. Is that realistic?
SALLY BENSON:
Well, when we talk about a main plank I, you know, I see CCS as one of those, you know, a 20% solution, you know it's not a silver bullet, it's not the whole story.
COMMENTATOR:
Carbon Capture and Storage is the technology the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC, says we'll need if, or when, we overshoot our carbon targets, which most experts think we will. When it comes to that point, they say, we're going to have to engineer global warming into reverse by using plants to suck CO2 from the atmosphere. It may sound bizarre but it is genuinely being considered.
SALLY BENSON:
The only real option for taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, or so-called negative emissions today is something called BECCS, which is Bio-Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage.
COMMENTATOR:
So how would it be done? Well, first you plant crops that grow fast and absorb CO2, then you burn the plants and get electricity in the process. Then, here's the magic bit, you capture the CO2 emissions from burning the plants and bury it under the ground and, there you are, that's Bio-Energy Carbon Capture and Storage, BECCS.