Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies are only viable if the carbon sequestered is stored ‘durably’ for at least 1,000 years, a study has found.

CCS technology concentrates carbon emissions and stores them beneath the seabed under pressure. It can be used to capture emissions at source or absorb airborne carbon as a way to remove the emissions already released into the atmosphere historically.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has specified that the removed atmospheric CO2 has to be stored ‘durably’ so that it is not released back into the atmosphere. But interpretations of the exact time period of a durable storage medium have varied from decades to millennia.

A new study released in Communications Earth & Environment has calculated that if emissions captured from historical fossil fuel burning were only stored for 100 years, the planet could see additional warming of 1.1°C by 2500 compared to permanent storage, thus putting internationally-agreed-upon temperature limits...