Techniques already approved include soil carbon sequestration,avoided land clearing,emissions capture from landfill,improvement to heavy transport efficiency,and fugitive gas capture in mining. Carbon credits are either bought back by the government or sold to industrial polluters who want to offset their greenhouse emissions.
Mr Taylor saidcarbon capture and storage was crucial to the government’s technology road map,which invests public funds to lower the cost of cleaner technologies. Commercialising carbon capture would help Australia expand its gas exports and promote hydrogen production from fossil fuels,he said.
The technology prevents carbon dioxide pollution from being released into the atmosphere and,if it’s a large-scale project,pumps it underground into a geological formation.
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“[Carbon capture and storage] is a priority under the government’s technology investment road map and the new ERF method will incentivise emissions reductions from a range of energy-intensive sectors including LNG production,which currently accounts for around 10 per cent of Australia’s emissions,” Mr Taylor said.
“Our north Asian trading partners are relying on gas to reduce their emissions and provide affordable and reliable energy to power their economies.”
The Greens and environmental groups oppose funding for carbon capture and storage because it would direct taxpayer dollars to fossil fuel companies and delay the massive research and development push needed to switch heavy industry to clean fuel sources.