World Coal Institute (WCI) CEO, Milton Catelin made a strong case for the immediate deployment of CCS technologies at Point Carbon's Carbon Market Insights 2009 conference in Copenhagen. Without CCS, argued Catelin, we do not have a poltically or economically viable solution to the climate issue.

Catelin noted that while CCS technologies will add to the cost of energy, the technolgy is currently ready for wide spread deployment. Furthermore, he argued that the risk of CO₂ leakage from deep saline basins is less than 1% and world wide storage potential in deep saline basins is over 9,000 gigatonnes.

Looking at the need for CO₂ pipelines and infrastructure, Catelin pointed out that when the banking crisis erupted, governments around the world immediately poured trillions in loans and funding into stimulus pakages and bailouts. Those same governments, however, claim that while climate change is a real and immediate threat to human well-being, they refuse to permit or fund pipelines to transport CO₂.

He finished up his comments by noting the rapid pace of CCS technology development and deployment in China. Catelin opined that,

For years we've been talking about exporting technology to China, and we may be in a position in Europe of being supplicants and asking for technology from China

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