Burying CO2 vital in climate battle: IEA

By Pete Harrison

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Finding ways of safely burying carbon dioxide could be the only way of keeping greenhouse gas emissions below dangerous levels, the International Energy Agency's chief economist said on Thursday.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is seen by industry and some lawmakers as a possible silver bullet in the fight against climate change as it could curb growing emissions from coal plants.

But it has never been tested on a commercial scale and it is strongly opposed by some environmentalists, who argue it is unsafe, will not be ready in time and could divert investment away from truly green sources of power.

IEA Chief Economist Fatih Birol said CCS was the technological breakthrough the world was looking for in the fight against global warming, and any economic and technological challenges could be overcome with government support.

The EU says any warming of the climate by more than 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels will bring more damaging heat waves, storms, coastal flooding and water shortages.

The bloc has adopted ambitious targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions by a fifth by 2020 from 1990 levels.

However, a United Nations panel of scientists says that target will be hard to achieve and that its best guess for temperature rises this century is between 1.8 and 4 degrees Celsius.

"What we need is a key technology, which is carbon capture and storage," Birol told a briefing with Brussels think-tank the Lisbon Council.