Riga - When the European Commission told European Union member states they needed to do more to combat climate change and protect the polar ice Thursday, it may not have realized help could soon be at hand from an unlikely source - Latvian sand.

At the Baltic Economic Forum held in the Latvian capital, Riga, recently, experts discussed a new technology that could play a big part in controlling climate change. As a happy by-product, it could also generate large amounts of cash for the small Baltic nation that is currently in recession.

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is the process of capturing the harmful carbon dioxide released during the combustion of fossil fuels and storing it instead of releasing it into the atmosphere.

Numerous trials are under way, particularly in Germany and Scandinavia, but the technology remains some years from being commercially applied.

The Latvian interest in CCS comes from the fact that the local geology is peculiarly suited to the storage of carbon - in theory at least. Latvia's sandy subsoil is already being used to store huge quantities of natural gas underground, as at the Incukalns facility just outside Riga.

Such facilities could just as easily be used to sequester carbon, experts believe.

"Because of the geology we have suitable geological structures in all of Latvia," Andzela Petersone, a CCS specialist with the Latvian environment ministry told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"We have such potential only in Latvia, not in the other Baltic states. There is no potential in Estonia and Lithuania," she said.

The ministry is studying geological charts dating from the Soviet era to identify potential CCS sites, Petersone explained.

Latvia could become a "carbon bank" for the continent, pumping carbon underground in return for generous cash payments from companies and other governments.

For example, neighbouring Estonia has substantial oil shale reserves which it uses as an important but heavily polluting source of energy.

Einari Kissel of the Estonian Economics Ministry told dpa there are "technical possibilities" in the idea of Estonian carbon being stored beneath Latvian soil.

German company E.ON Ruhrgas is among the current leaders in CCS technology, but Mario Nullmeier, head of E.ON's Baltic office was circumspect about Latvia's specific storage possibilities, preferring to concentrate on general principles.

"When you deal with CCS you have to store it somewhere - you can use depleted oil and gas fields," he said.

But Nullmeier was just as keen to point out the potential problems CCS could bring.

"The CO2 is still there so we need to question if this is a safe solution. It's the same discussion as with nuclear projects and nuclear waste. We don't know yet."

"No-one can tell us the consequences in 100, 500 or 5,000 years. To say this is a safe solution one way or the other would not be the truth," Nullmeier warned.

Petersone also recommended caution, saying: "I am often taking part in working parties in Brussels there are two groups of experts. One group says the risk is very low. Another group says the technology is too new and we have no experience in long-term storage. They identify risks of leakage and migration into underground water."

However, Andris Spruds from the department of political science at Riga Stradina University told dpa it was not just a need for scientific progress that was standing between Latvia and carbon wealth.

"Storing gas is a much sexier business than storing emissions - and much more profitable at the present moment. In the Latvian energy discourse, this is not something that has been extensively discussed. It has started to appear but the sexier businesses are still at the top of the agenda," Spruds said. dpa