Sir, Pilita Clark’s thoughtful article (“Carbon capture: Miracle machine or white elephant?”, September 10) correctly points out that relatively few commercial scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) plants have been deployed thus far. Yet there is a very strong case to be made that governments, including in the US, have not pursued effective incentives that would spur private sector investment, innovation and long-term cost reductions in CCS, while cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Such incentives, which every major form of energy has enjoyed in its early stages, are more than justified given that CCS can cut carbon emissions not only from coal plants but also from natural gas power facilities and industrial emitters like oil refineries and fertiliser plants.

In the US industrial CCS projects are already operating at a major ethanol plant in Illinois, an oil refinery in Texas, and fertiliser facilities in Oklahoma, Kansas, and North Dakota. And Exelon, one of America’s largest electric utilities, is building a natural gas power plant in Texas that will use carbon dioxide to drive a combustion turbine, and then capture it.

CCS technologies, especially post-combustion capture and CO2 compression, are technically proven and viable for deployment today by many companies who understand their benefits, and realise that costs will drop as deployment increases. As Michael Monea of SaskPower, which developed Canada’s Boundary Dam CCS plant, has noted, “This plant is the most expensive plant because it’s the first. Our next plant will be 30 per cent cheaper, and the next plant after that maybe 20 per cent cheaper [still].”

Most importantly, every major climate change scenario that includes the dramatic reductions in CO2 emissions scientists and political leaders are calling for assumes that CCS will be widely deployed in the next two decades. The problem is that while major nations are counting on CCS technologies to cut emissions, they have not yet made the required investments. Key countries must now provide effective tax and procurement incentives to drive down CCS technology costs and thus eliminate the need for government support over time. In the US, such incentives should be a top priority for the Congress, President Obama, and candidates of both parties who aspire to succeed him.