She points to the International Energy Agency’s assessment that carbon capture will be a necessary and vital plank of global decarbonisation efforts,and vows to work with the industry to help expand the technology.
“Carbon capture and storage represents an opportunity for Australia if we get it right,” King will tell the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association conference. “The will is there. The know-how is there.”
Carbon capture and storage – which traps carbon dioxide emissions produced by gas-processing plants,factories or power stations before they are emitted into the atmosphere and injects them underground – has been a divisive area of climate policy.
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Supporters argue it is a necessary and unavoidable component of the world’s decarbonisation goals to avoid the worst and most immediate impacts of global warming.
However,the technology is strongly opposed by the Greens and many climate advocates,who argue it diverts focus from shifting the economy to cleaner energy,and fear it could be used to prolong the consumption of harmful fossil fuels.
Questions also remain about the technology functioning at scale,given the continued underperformance ofChevron’s Gorgon carbon capture and storage plant in Western Australia – the world’s biggest commercial-scale project.