Storing CO2 underground may appear risky to many communities around the world, making it extremely important that governments develop effective regulatory enforcement regimes to address such concerns, according to a report issued Monday by the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute. “Communities around the world want assurances from governments that CCS is safe and reliable,” Ian Havercroft, the institute’s acting global lead for policy, legal, and regulation, said in a release.
The study, completed by Australian environmental lawyer Meredith Gibbs, the institute’s Asia-Pacific fellow, provides some basic characteristics of a successful regulatory regime for CO2 storage.
The report states that an effective regime has these key features: “comprehensive obligations that address the key risks of underground storage of CO2; comprehensive monitoring and verification requirements; enforcement mechanisms that are risk-based, layered and flexible, grounded in science and fact-based decision-making, and include the ability to deal with ‘serious situations’ (such as unintended releases and CO2 not behaving as predicted); and a clear allocation of roles and responsibilities for enforcement.”
