# How a Secret Vote by U.N. Scientists Legitimized Carbon Capture and Skewed Decades of Climate Policy

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/how-a-secret-vote-by-u-n-scientists-legitimized-carbon-capture-and-skewed-decades-of-climate-policy/
- Published: 2026-10-30T10:00:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-04T00:19:57+00:00
- Original publisher: ProPublica
- Original article: https://www.propublica.org/article/carbon-capture-storage-fossil-fuel-sally-benson
- Topics: Climate, Elections, Government, Politics, Research, Science

## Key points

- A 2005 UN report helped bring carbon capture into mainstream climate policy.
- Evidence on permanent underground storage was limited.
- Fossil fuel companies saw CCS as a way to keep burning fuels.

## Summary

A ProPublica investigation says a 2005 United Nations climate report helped legitimise carbon capture and storage (CCS) despite major uncertainties about whether it could safely and permanently store emissions. The report’s consensus process, led in part by geoscientist Sally Benson, brought CCS into mainstream climate policy at a time when evidence from large-scale projects was limited.

More than 100 scientists gathered in Spain, including researchers from Shell, Chevron and Saudi Aramco, after oil-producing countries pressed for the report. Only one of three major projects had rigorously tested permanent storage: a Norwegian operation where injected carbon dioxide rose about 700 feet before shale trapped it. The investigation says the fossil fuel industry viewed CCS as a way to keep using coal, oil and gas, while critics warned it could distract from phasing out fossil fuels.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.