The global need to reduce CO2 is clear, however Europe and the UK are steamrolling Australia when it comes to acting, according to Calix.
Dr Mark Sceats, executive director & chief scientist, Calix, said,
“CO2 reduction is a global problem that will impact future generations if it is not addressed on a global scale. In Europe, for example, discussions with engineers centre on getting on with addressing CO2 reduction. In Australia, there is still seems to be an ongoing debate about whether human greenhouse gas emissions are impacting the environment at all, which is a waste of time and energy, and is stymieing innovation and action.”
“More than 10 years ago, Calix found that advancing our CO2 capture technology in Australia just wasn’t possible because there wasn’t demand for it here. We therefore moved the research and development to Europe and the UK, where there was more interest in advancing it, so that we could be in a better position to solve this global challenge.”
Calix engineers and scientists are leading the Low Emissions Intensity Lime and Cement (LEILAC) project, as a European-Australian collaboration, which includes a consortium of some of the world’s largest cement, lime, and engineering companies, as well as leading research and environmental institutions.
Calix has also won funding from both the UK (DECC) and EU (ASCENT Project) to develop Calix’s ENDEX Reactor Technology, which introduces significant new options for energy generation organisations seeking to reduce CO2 emissions.
According to Calix, Australian companies are starting to get on board.
Dr Mark Sceats said,
“The 2015 COP21 Paris Agreement, of which Australia is a part, was a turning point for Australian businesses. There is no doubt companies are looking at the future and their investments with a careful eye on CO2 emissions reductions. They are assessing the risks, and the highest risk can be to do nothing because there will eventually be a significant price on CO2 emissions. It is also timely for the government to step in to accelerate the uptake of new, low emissions technologies”.
“It takes a long time for the ship of innovation to change course to address large issues, such as CO2 emissions, but it is in the interests of every nation to do so.”
The recent OECD report “Investing in Climate, Investing in Growth” shows that integrating measures to tackle climate change into regular economic policy increases the average GDP of G20 economies by 5% compared to current policies.[1]
Dr Mark Sceats said,
“Calix has been working hard for the last 10 years to take a technology from a concept and scale it up to a commercial scale, as we successfully seek to provide a range of industries with very cost-effective, low-carbon, production options. That has been done in Australia for magnesite processes, and is being done in Europe for lime and cement. Our next challenge is to couple our technology to renewable energy to make zero and negative emissions products. This work has now started, and is progressing rapidly.”
[1] https://www.oecd.org/environment/cc/g20-climate/synthesis-investing-in-climate-investing-in-growth.pdf
