FutureGen And The Department of Energy's Advanced Coal Programs

This testimony by Sarah Forbes of the World Resources Institute (WRI) to the U.S. House of Representatives emphasizes the urgent need for a global network of carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstrations to mitigate climate change, specifically highlighting the necessity of collaboration with China and the establishment of international funding and regulatory frameworks.

• Coal use accounts for more than 40 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, making carbon capture and storage (CCS) a critical technology for coal-burning nations to deploy in the coming decades to address climate change.
• Experts suggest a need for 15 to 20 global CCS demonstrations with varying capture and storage configurations. The G8 set a goal of 20 demonstrations by 2010, and the U.S Climate Action Partnership (US-CAP) recommends at least five CCS-enabled coal facilities in the United States by 2015.
• Moving CCS from research to commercialization requires integrated power-plant scale demonstrations, which are estimated to cost between $1 billion and $1.5 billion per project. Current funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is considered insufficient for full commercialization.
• China's coal-related CO2 emissions could reach 51 percent of the global total by 2030. Because China's rapid growth in non-carbon power sources may not fully replace coal, CCS deployment in China is described as potentially the only way to achieve necessary global emission reductions.
• Several CCS initiatives are underway in China, including the GreenGen project in Tianjin (a 200 MW IGCC plant with planned CCS by 2020), the UK-China Near Zero Emissions Coal Project (NZEC), the COACH Project with the EU, and a demonstration plant at Gaobeidian in Beijing assisted by Australia's CSIRO.
• Three primary international CCS coordination efforts exist: the U.S. Department of Energy's Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF), Australia's Global CCS Institute (funded at $100M per year for 10 years), and the International Energy Agency (IEA) GHG Program, which is developing an international roadmap for CCS.
• To facilitate global CCS deployment, the testimony recommends five actions: funding joint U.S.-China public-private demonstrations, creating research exchange programs, increasing bilateral capacity building on regulation, establishing formal partnerships with the UK, EU, China, and Australia, and creating a scholarship program for U.S. researchers to present at international meetings.

APA

Forbes, S. M. (n.d.). FutureGen And The Department of Energy's Advanced Coal Programs. World Resources Institute. https://www.wri.org/publications/testimony-futuregen-and-department-energys-advanced-coal-programs

Chicago

Forbes, Sarah M. FutureGen And The Department of Energy's Advanced Coal Programs. World Resources Institute, n.d. https://www.wri.org/publications/testimony-futuregen-and-department-energys-advanced-coal-programs.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Forbes |first1=Sarah M. |title=FutureGen And The Department of Energy's Advanced Coal Programs |publisher=World Resources Institute |url=https://www.wri.org/publications/testimony-futuregen-and-department-energys-advanced-coal-programs |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{forbesndfuturegen, author = {Forbes, Sarah M.}, title = {{FutureGen And The Department of Energy's Advanced Coal Programs}}, publisher = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/publications/testimony-futuregen-and-department-energys-advanced-coal-programs}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }