The cost of cleaning up fossil fuels - and the price of doing nothing

The 500ft cooling tower at the Mountaineer power station in New Haven, West Virginia, does not look much different from the scores that dot the British countryside. It might need a second look to notice that, in its shadow, there is a hole in the ground that goes two miles deep into the rock next to the Ohio river.

Next spring, the attention of scientists, engineers and policymakers from around the world will be focused on this power plant as engineers there try to crack one of the most urgent technological questions facing humans today: how to remove the carbon dioxide from the fossil fuels we burn and safely bury it where it cannot warm the planet.

Mountaineer is a modest project, aiming to trap just 100,000 tonnes of CO2 a year, the equivalent of a 20MW power station which could power 20,000 homes. But if it works, the plant's place in the history books, as the first successful trial of a complete carbon capture and storage (CCS) unit attached to a power station, will be assured.

CCS has the potential to make a big impact in reducing global carbon emissions - and the components of the technology all exist. At its best, CCS could prevent 90% of the CO2 emitted by power stations from getting into the atmosphere. Better still, it could be a vital tool for developing countries, such as China, where the government's economic growth and poverty reduction targets depend on building huge numbers of coal-fired power stations.The EU commissioner for energy, Andris Piebalgs, is unequivocal about the need for technology to bridge the gap until large-scale and more climate-friendly sources of energy become viable.