Carbon Capture And Storage: Navigating The Environmental And Heritage Assessment Process

Key Points:
Carbon capture storage project proponents should carefully consider the location of their proposed project and the range of different environment and heritage assessments and approvals that may be required at an early stage in the planning process and allocate sufficient time and resources for this task.

All carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects will have a range of environment and health and safety risks associated with the capture, separation, transport, injection and storage phases that will need to be assessed and minimised. The Commonwealth Government and Victorian, Queensland and South Australia Governments have recently either varied existing petroleum legislation or enacted new standalone legislation to permit the storage of carbon dioxide in deep geological formations offshore (eg. depleted oil and gas reservoirs) and onshore (eg. unmineable coal seams onshore). This legislation regulates the risk of potential carbon dioxide leaks through a