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Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage

CO2 emissions from industrial facilities, particularly power plants and industrial boilers that burn coal, oil or natural gas, is a major contributor to global climate change.  Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage (CCS), also known as Carbon Capture and Sequestration, is the separation and capture of carbon dioxide (CO2) from these industrial processes and the subsequent transport and permanent disposal of the CO2 in deep underground rock formations.

By preventing CO2 from large-scale industrial facilities from entering the atmosphere, CCS is a powerful tool for combating climate change. As such, the G8 heads of government have recognised the critical role of CCS in tackling global climate change, and have tasked the International Energy Agency with a number of CCS tasks, including:

• Working with the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF) to hold a series of workshops to develop recommendations for the G8 leaders' July 2008 summit in Hokkaido, Japan; and
  
  
• Providing information exchange to facilitate the development of legal and regulatory frameworks to govern CCS;
  
  
• Developing scenarios and roadmaps for CCS deployment

At their Hokkaido Summit in 2008, G8 leaders:

• agreed to establish an international initiative with the support of the IEA to develop CCS technology roadmaps and cooperate through existing and new partnerships;
  
  
• strongly supported the launching of 20 large-scale CCS demonstration projects globally by 2010 taking into account various national circumstances with a view to beginning broad deployment of CCS by 2020;
  
  
• committed to increasing investment in clean energy technology research and development (R&D), and the promotion of commercialization including through direct government funding and fiscal measures to encourage private sector investment; and
  
  
• agreed to take various policy and regulatory measures to provide incentives for commercializing these technologies.