Carbon Capture and Storage - Overview

I am opposed Carbon Capture and Storage anywhere in the world. But as an Australian I put emphasis on how it is done here in Australia.

What is Carbon Capture and Storage (often abbreviated to CCS)

This refers to capturing the carbon dioxide which is produced when fossil fuels such as coal and gas are burned in power stations and pumping it into storage sites rather than allow it to escape into the atmosphere where it is known to cause climate change. It is not feasible to retrofit this to existing power stations, so it is only really an option for new power stations. As carbon dioxide is a gas, it needs to be compressed and stored under pressure.

Why is this a problem

• Carbon dioxide does not degrade. So we would have to be confident that carbon dioxide will not leak, not just in our lifetime but for the life of the planet, as we obviously should not create a problem for future generations. This confidence is probably impossible to achieve and our arrangements here in Australia definitely do not achieve it, as I will demonstrate.
• "Available technology captures about 85-95% of the CO2 processed in a capture plant." See Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report on CCS. This means that even if the CO2 does not leak, some will still end up in the atmosphere.
• The private sector is evidently not prepared to take on liability for any future leaks, so the federal government does this here in Australia. Almost certainly it will be the same elsewhere.
• The process of capturing, compressing and transporting carbon dioxide uses up a proportion of the energy being produced, meaning more fossil fuels need to burned for a given amount of usable electricity.
• The sites may require ongoing monitoring and maintenance and thus impose an ongoing and indefinite cost on future generations.
• The cost of this scheme takes money away from true climate change solutions.

But really, the main problem is this:

Carbon Capture and Storage could allow current generations to emit apocalyptic amounts of CO2 which will ultimately not be contained, to the detriment of future generations.

CSS Projects in Australia

At this stage, there are only experimental projects in Australia. But the federal government intends for there to be new fossil fuel power stations.

Australian Legislation

I will expand on this in the other sections but here is an extremely brief summary.

• The federal government is obligated to take on long term liability for CCS.
• Long term liability can start as soon as 15 years after injection into the storage site has ceased.
• There is no clear obligation to ensure the sites will not leak.