International Energy Agency claims that 10,000 large-scale carbon sequestration projects needed by 2050 to avoid major global warming

According to the International Energy Agency, there are only four carbon capture and storage ("CCS") projects in operation today, and none involves capturing emissions from coal-fired power plants. There are two off-shore projects in Norway, one in Algeria, and one in Canada. They each inject approximately 1 million tons of CO2 per year [roughly equal to CO2 emissions of 300 thousand cars]. IEA views CCS as one of the most promising technologies available to decrease CO2 emissions from the energy sector, particularly from coal- and gas-fired power plants. In http://www.iea.org/textbase/publications/free_new_Desc.asp?PUBS_ID=2052 the IEA reviews the potential, cost, and performance of CCS. The need for CCS is demonstrated, in the view of IEA, by its 2008 Energy Technology Perspectives report which describes energy-sector CO2 emissions. See http://www.iea.org/textbase/speech/2008/Taylor_ETP2008.pdf. The IEA projects that energy related CO2 emissions will grow from 27 gigatons in 2008 to 62 gigatons in 2050 under a "business as usual" scenario. To keep the global temperature increase to less than 3 degrees C, CO2 emissions need to be halved. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Fourth Assessment Report [http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/tp-climate-change-water.htm] notes that total GHG emissions by industrialized countries will have to be reduced 80-95% to hold the increase in global temperature to 2 degrees C this century, and that an increase like that of the IEA's "business as usual" projection will result in a global temperature increase of 4-7 degrees C. IEA notes that demonstration projects are needed forthwith to work out the technology and sell the concept before "it is too late". It recommends 20 demonstration projects, and projects their cost at $50 billion. To reach its goal of keeping a global temperature increase to 3 degrees C or less, the IEA estimates that 10 thousand large-scale CCS projects will be required.