Zero Interview

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Every day you and I get bombarded with negative news. And just like our bodies, become what we eat, our minds become the information that we consume. If you want to stay positive, it’s so important that you also listen to stories that inspire you and uplift you. In this podcast we interview leading experts dedicated to solving the world’s most pressing problems. And if you stick around, I promise you will not only be as informed as if you watched the news, you will be uplifted, inspired, and have more positive energy in your life. Welcome to Great.com Talks With.

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Hi and welcome. Today, great.com talks with Camilla Svendson, who is a political adviser specialized into the work of climate capture in the organization Zero.no. And if you haven’t heard of them, they are a Norwegian organization and Zero stands for zero emission resource organization and they are fighting for emission-less technologies and carbon capture. And I’m excited to speak with Camilla today. And if you’re new here and to this podcast, you definitely want to subscribe, because in this podcast we talk about all kinds of things we can do to make the environment better on this planet. Camilla. Hi, and welcome to the podcast. Thank you. Good to have you here. Now, how would you describe Zero to someone that might not be so familiar with the organization or what the carbon situation is like in Norway?

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So Zero is an environmental organization and non-governmental organization, and we’re quite young in the Norwegian context where around 20 years old as an organization, um, and we mainly work in Norway. But, you know, climate issues have no borders. So what we do in Norway has a great effect also internationally and our organization works only with climate issues. So that means that we work to replace technologies or use more technologies that will mitigate emissions that are the reasons for climate change. So we work with renewable energy, transition to renewable transport and myself, I work with carbon capture and storage and industry related emissions.

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Interesting. And for someone that might not be so familiar with what’s going on in Norway, what is the progression that is happening in Norway right now?

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Because I know Norway is a country that got parts of its economy from the oil industry. And now I guess you’re making some kind of transition. Where is Norway in that timeline?

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Yeah, we’re very dependent on oil and gas still, but we export that kind of emissions in a way, and so the emissions are not related to our emissions here that much. And we’re lucky because we have hydro as our energy source in norway 90 percent of our energy usage is from hydro. So in that way, we’re lucky. And the latest I don’t know, 20, 30 years, we have slowly been using renewable energy in a greater content, like wind is growing a bit, solar as well, but not growing and being implemented as much as should be, of course. And yeah. So that’s important that we get the speed up and the transition to more renewable energy usage. But we have one field which we know we are way ahead, and that’s in electrical cars where maybe the country in the world has the most electrical cars. So that’s good. And it’s mainly because of that. It’s your package of political means that has brought us to that. And the main reason is that it’s a great advantage to own an electric car in the way.

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That’s really good, being powered by hydro energy and then a lot of electric cars, and to paint this picture even more for someone that might not be so familiar with carbon capture. Where is this technology today? How competitive

is it to something like planting trees or other methods that people might have first in mind when it comes to carbon capture?

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Mm hmm. Well, it can be very effective if we use it on great, you know, big emission sources like industry and also waste management plants.

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And the good news is that there aren’t that many point sources of emissions when it comes to industry. For example, when it comes to cars, you have lots and lots and lots, of course, but industry, it is not that many sources. So what’s good with carbon capture and storage is that it’s a mature technology and it is in use worldwide, especially in the USA and Canada. It’s been proven and it can actually mitigate emissions to a great extent. And what’s important now is to lower the cost because it’s quite expensive to use. But Norway has come a long way in this climate storage issue because the government has proposed that we are going to build a full scale carbon capture and storage infrastructure here in Norway. And the first project that will be part of that is Norcem, which is the cement factory. And they’re going to get rid of all their CO2 emissions because of this project. And if other cement factories, for example, follow their lead. Globally, the cement industry mitigates five percent of the world’s CO2 emissions. So if they can use this technology, it will mean a great deal.

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So how does this technology work then? Because, I mean, not knowing so much about it, I imagine a big chimney and in the chimney there is like a filter or a chemical or how is it working?

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Yeah, it’s a chemical. It’s something called Amine’s mainly, which you can put the chemical into the fluid gas, gas that comes in the chimney and the chemicals will connect to CO2 only and not the rest of the exhaust. And since it connects to CO2, it will make it heavier and it drops down and you can collect the CO2 and separate it from the rest. And when you pressure CO2, it gets liquid. So we have it in a liquid form and you can transport it on trailers or ships and inject it into the underground, either offshore and onshore, which sounds strange, but carbon is something coming up from the earth already. So you can say that you bring it back where it came from.

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So it’s not like a nuclear waste thing.

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It’s more that the oil is already in the ground, we are turning the carbon emissions kind of back into oil, but not really not reaching into the ground and way, what, one kilometer down or more into reservoirs, which can be natural or can be depleted gas or oil resources. And since that CO2 is in liquid form it and where you meet it, know where you put it. It’s kind of like a swampy sandstone with small holes that take up the CO2 into the ground where it stays. So that’s the main idea behind this, and there’s no risk it will leak back to the surface and it’s very strict where you put it. It’s very strict when the chosen areas and also, um, it’s been what you call that monitored. So it’s heavily restricted and so it will not leak. And if something is detected, it will be stopped. And since we have these trapping mechanisms like sandstones and it being so long down. There’s very little risk of that happening, and it’s not the same as waste anyway, because it’s natural to think that CO2 is dangerous because it’s the main problem, the main cause of climate change. But that’s because it’s too much of it in the atmosphere. It’s not dangerous in itself. It’s a natural component in nature. So the thing is to keep it out of the atmosphere.

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Right, and what kind of challenges are in the way to make this technology really scale up? It would be wonderful to see every chimney in the world has this gas and it doesn’t block measures.

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Agreed. It’s mainly political. Well, I would say because you have to in the beginning, it needs state support, so it has to be prioritized. In budgets, and then you have to find some kind of business model or framework that could make carbon capture and storage live on its own, be something you could do without state support. And this can be taxes. It can be funds, and it can be like we did with electric cars. And no way we have all these measures making it financially viable to choose. So if the industry got some kind of incentives to allow them to do so, yes, I think it will really scale up like if the cement industry knew that the state would prefer their cement in official buildings, roads, bridges, if they would be more competitive with their cement because it’s climate friendly cement. They could invest in it.

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I would be really excited if that assertion could be made. So what is the serious role in this transition then? Like where do you look to leverage and have influence and create this transition?

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Yeah, so we’re only 25 people, but we were kind of a combination with technical technology and expertise in that and political expertise. So we we’re kind of in the middle of or translating even academic language, technical

language and towards politicians and vice versa. And so we do a little political work, lobby work, for example, pressuring in every way that this kind of climate message should be prioritized in the state budget, in laws and rules. And so kind of normal political work that any environmental organization does.

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Right. How are you received with a lot of opposition or do you generally feel people kind of want to make these changes as long as the economic circumstances are correct?

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Yeah, I think we listen to and in no way it is easier maybe than in many countries to work with them on environmental issues because it’s seen as needed and as something positive and also zero. Our organization is viewed as very constructive and pragmatic. So it’s easy to get to influence in a way, but we’re never satisfied. Of course, we always want something more, our bigger goals to be set and no ways we have this double. They will take on things because we’re so dependent on oil and gas. Which we export and which is a big environmental problem.

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Right, and talking about bigger goals, then, what does zero hope to accomplish in, let’s say, the next 10 years? What does the future look like?

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We said that’s in the latest governmental declarations.

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It should be that we at least follow U.S. climate goals, which is fairness and reduction by 55 by 2050, which is the least that we should do here in a way with our own emissions. And then we should contribute to lowering emissions even more than 55 percent worldwide wide by using our own funds, for example, to invest in renewable energy infrastructure globally, etc.. So we should take care of our own emissions as well as contributing to worldwide, rather than always doing a big job with helping other countries lower their emissions.

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I read your investment in rainforest protection. Was it in Brazil?

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Yes, that’s true. Yeah, it’s part of our budget and also we invest in solar projects and wind projects worldwide, etc..

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I hear the economic mindset behind everything and I think that’s a good and smart way to accomplish change. So now imagine that someone is listening to this and I can imagine they feel trust towards your organization and your ability to influence in a positive way. What can they do as an individual to somehow be part of this change that is happening?

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All we can do so many things as individuals. It’s in every way we choose our actions, daily life and in the broader context as well. Where you live, how you transport yourself or not transport yourself and the food you eat, all these things. But I have to say that we have individual choices. But as in addition to that, it must be possible to make these choices. So it’s part of a bigger structure that we have to contribute to together. So the way we organize our cities, for example, is very important. And during these times, we know that we don’t have to travel that much. We can actually meet an. By the Internet and save the mitigation from four planes, for example, but I think it’s important to just be conscious of what you do and every step of your day and every part of your life. But as well that the politicians and the business make this possible and doable for everyone, so it goes together.

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Yeah, definitely goes together. And what can someone do to keep up to date with the work of Zero?

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You can look at our website, of course, and you know that I know, and these days we have a conference which normally should be finished within a few days, but we have to extend it. So there’s lots of information on our website and see the conference as well. And so that’s the main two. Two things.

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Beautiful Camilla Svendson. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with. Great.com today about carbon capture and climate change. Thank you. Thank you. And for you listening.

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If you enjoy this and if you would like for more people to hear about your discussions about climate change, please press subscribe in your podcast app or on YouTube that will help us get through the algorithm. Some more people can hear this kind of conversation. Thank you so much for listening and we’ll see you in the next episode.

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