CO2 capture plans unveiled

2008-05-19 12:05

Rachel Pannett

Canberra - The Australian government is pressing ahead with plans to regulate the capture and burial of carbon emissions under Australian seabeds, in a bid to clean up the country's coal industry.

Resources Minister Martin Ferguson released draft legislation over the weekend that will create a framework for carbon dioxide capture and geological storage, or CCS.

"With 83% of Australia's electricity generated from coal, no serious response to climate change can ignore the need to clean up coal and the government's establishment of a CCS framework represents a major step forward towards making clean coal a reality," Ferguson said in a statement on Saturday.

The legislation - which establishes access and property rights for the injection and storage of greenhouse gases into geological reservoirs located in Commonwealth waters off Australia - has been referred to a Primary Industries & Resources Committee for review. The bill will be introduced into parliament later this year, Ferguson said.

"Australia has the capacity to inject and store a significant amount of its carbon emissions in these reservoirs," Ferguson said.

"This legislation will create an environment in which industry can invest in CCS projects with confidence and will encourage the commercialisation of technologies which have the potential to play a vital role in reducing global greenhouse gases in the future," he said.

Up to 10 sites will be tested for possible storage, with around half likely to be chosen.

Australia, which uses coal for the majority of its power supplies, is due to start emissions trading by 2010 to help tackle global warming. The scheme will cover about 70% to 80% of the nation's emissions, mainly from the power sector but also from heavy emitters such as aluminium producers.

There are fears the trading plan will add to Australia's electricity prices, given its dependence on coal-fired energy, as well as affecting energy-intensive industries that can't pass on rising input costs to their international customers.

But CCS projects, if successful, could help offset the cost of emissions trading for coal-fired energy operators.

- Dow Jones