In October 2011 a decision was taken not to proceed with the first proposed project of the UK’s programme of publicly supported demonstration projects at Longannet Power Station in Scotland, as a deal could not be reached within the GBP 1 billion of capital support available from the UK Government. All parties involved in the project believe that other full chain projects can be delivered within the GBP 1 billion. An extensive amount of detailed technical information was gained through the first competition process and all this is freely available on the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) website to support future deployment of CCS (see the section below on knowledge transfer to support the development of CO₂ storage projects).

The UK Government remains firmly committed to CCS, as demonstrated in April 2012 when the government launched the UK CCS Roadmap, which sets out a comprehensive package to take the United Kingdom to cost competitive CCS in the 2020s. The Roadmap is made up of five key components:

• The CCS Commercialisation Programme with GBP 1 billion in capital funding and additional operational support available through contracts for difference.
• A GBP 125 million, four year, co-ordinated R&D and innovation programme and a new UK CCS Research Centre.
• Development of a market for low carbon electricity through electricity market reform, including availability of feed-in tariff contracts for difference for low carbon electricity (see further below).
• Commitments to working with industry to address other important areas including developing the CCS supply chain, storage and assisting the development of CCS infrastructure.
• International engagement focused on sharing knowledge generated through the UK programme and learning from other projects around the world.

CCS-specific regulation

The UK’s programme of regulatory developments to permit storage is drawing to a close as measures identified since 2007 are progressively put into effect.

During the last half of 2011 national legislation to implement the EU CO₂ Storage Directive was substantially completed. In September measures were put into place to facilitate third party access to CO₂ pipelines and storage sites, following a formal consultation. Work is now underway to develop detailed guidance on the implementation of these arrangements.

The Energy Act 2011 contains provisions to facilitate re-use of existing pipeline and storage site infrastructure for CO₂ transport and storage.

Relatively minor actions required to round off transposition of the EU CO₂ Storage Directive were completed over the last twelve months, including: the coming into effect of regulations dealing with inspections required by article 15 of the EU CO₂ Storage Directive; amendment of the Infrastructure Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2009 by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLC) to transpose article 31, which came into force in December 2011; and amendment of the Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999 to reflect the requirements of article 31 in Northern Ireland.

Electricity market reform

During the summer of 2011 DECC published an Energy White Paper setting out a far reaching package of electricity market reforms. These reforms are the biggest change to the UK market since privatisation and will transform the UK’s electricity network and drive investment in low-carbon generation including CCS. The reforms provide (for CCS):

• Long-term contracts (in the form of a feed-in-tariff, based on a contract for difference) to provide the stable financial incentives needed to drive investment in low carbon electricity generation (including CCS).
• An additional option for supporting CCS demonstrations with contracts that are designed to recognise the uncertainties of these early projects.
• An emissions performance standard set at 450g CO₂/KWh to limit the CO₂ emissions allowed from new coal fired power plants.
• A carbon price floor that will further incentivise investment in low-carbon generation now, whilst also giving appropriate exemptions for CCS generators to help increase competitiveness in the market. 

Knowledge transfer to support the development of CO₂ storage projects

In March 2010, the UK Government awarded funding to both E.ON UK and the Scottish Power CCS Consortium to carry out Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED) studies as part of the procurement process for the United Kingdom’s first commercial-scale CCS demonstration project. The FEED studies involved detailed engineering and design work enabling the bidders to further their designs for the projects at Kingsnorth and Longannet respectively and to improve their understanding of the risks and associated costs.

The government is committed to disseminating the knowledge from the UK CCS demonstration competition to enable the wider commercial deployment of CCS in the United Kingdom and internationally. This is exemplified in the government's commitment to make the products from both E.ON UK and the Scottish Power CCS Consortium FEED studies freely and publicly available. The FEED study material includes details of the stakeholder profiling work to identify key stakeholders and to understand their CCS knowledge requirements. It also includes details of the regulatory work and related consultation with both statutory and non statutory stakeholders.  The amount of information made available through the release of these two FEED studies goes beyond anything previously undertaken globally, in the context of CCS knowledge transfer.

Given the United Kingdom’s transposition of the EU CO₂ Storage Directive is now complete, no significant developments are expected in the next 6-12 months.

Alberta has recognised the need to address regulatory and policy barriers facing the deployment of commercial-scale CCS and has implemented legislation to deal with these issues. To address uncertainty related to pore space ownership and the management of long-term liability, the Government of Alberta passed the Carbon Capture and Storage Statutes Amendment Act in December 2010. This legislation was essential to enable the Government of Alberta to grant tenure agreements for pore space access, which allows for the advancement of a number of commercial-scale CCS projects that will reduce GHG emissions by five million tonnes annually beginning in 2015.

To support the Act, the Carbon Sequestration Tenure Regulation was passed in April 2011. The regulation addresses three main aspects of tenure for CCS. They are:

• To allow operators to evaluate a potential storage site to investigate the geology and determine the adequacy and effectiveness of the site.
• To allow operators to obtain leases to allow for commercial-scale storage at suitable storage sites.
• To specify what criteria must be included in a monitoring, measurement and verification plan that is to be approved by the regulator.

In order to identify and address any other potential regulatory gaps associated with CCS in Alberta, the Government of Alberta initiated a Regulatory Framework Assessment (RFA) in March 2011. The RFA is a significant project being led by the Department of Energy, with participation by various stakeholders including other government departments, industry, academia, non-governmental organisations and international experts. The RFA is examining in detail the environmental, safety and assurance processes that exist to determine what, if any, new processes or requirements need to be put in place. This project is being guided by a multi-disciplinary steering committee and an expert panel that consists of world-renowned scientists who are internationally recognised for their experience and expertise in CCS issues and in developing energy and environmental policy. The expert panel is acting as a third-party advisor and will peer review work. The regulatory analysis and development of recommendations are being conducted by four working groups - highly specialised teams that are examining various specific issues in detail.

In the next 6-12 months, the RFA will continue to proceed and develop recommendations for regulatory enhancements as they are identified. The expert panel and steering committee will review and approve recommendations from the working groups with subsequent submission of the recommendations to the Minister of Energy for final approval. The RFA is expected to conclude its work by the end of 2012.

Alberta recognises the important role stakeholders and the public play in deploying commercial-scale CCS. Our approach is to ensure Albertans have a solid understanding of CCS and confidence in the provincial government’s approach to managing CCS activities well before projects begin operation in 2015.

To increase public awareness of CCS, and how the government is moving forward with this technology, the Government of Alberta undertook a public education and outreach campaign in October and November of 2011 to provide accurate information about CCS to the public via newspaper inserts, television commercials featuring three themes: CCS, enhanced oil recovery and climate change, and a new website (www.SolutionsStartHere.ca). The education and outreach programme is expected to be followed by a public consultation about the regulatory framework for CCS. The consultation will involve a number of community meetings, discussions with stakeholders and an online questionnaire. The government plans to provide a “what we heard” report that summarises these discussions following the consultation.

Through these consultations, Albertans will have the opportunity to participate in the development of a world-class regulatory framework for CCS by providing their views on issues related to CCS, and input into the rules that will govern how CCS activities are done in the province.

It is important to note that at the project level, our proponents have spent significant amounts of time building relationships with their neighbours and the nearby communities. They have been very actively engaging with their stakeholders - hosting numerous open houses and meetings and providing responses to the many requests for more information about CCS or about their particular project.

Currently, there are regulatory requirements for operators to undertake public engagement as part of the approval process for industrial facilities, and CCS projects are no different. Requirements for broad public notification, focused landowner consultation and public hearings are well-established in Alberta’s regulatory regime. Requirements and triggers for engagement and consultation are being reviewed as part of the RFA to ensure appropriate requirements are in place in the Alberta regulatory process for commercial-scale CCS.

Alberta is committed to sharing its experience with others in the global CCS community. The province will provide periodic updates, as well as share reports, data and the lessons that are learned through the RFA and the three commercial-scale projects that are receiving part of their funding through a CAD 1.5 billion commercial demonstration programme

Under Australia’s federal system of government, the Australian Government has jurisdiction over Commonwealth waters (extending from three nautical miles offshore to the edge of Australia’s continental shelf) and the states and territories have jurisdiction over onshore areas and coastal waters (up to three nautical miles). The development of legislative and regulatory systems in each jurisdiction is a matter for the jurisdiction concerned.

The Commonwealth has finalised the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage (Greenhouse Gas Injection and Storage) Regulations 2011 (Commonwealth), which came into force in June 2011.These detailed regulations underpin the overall framework contained in the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006 (Commonwealth) regulating offshore injection and storage operations. The regulations cover six linked elements:

• The detailed mechanisms for determining whether there is a significant risk of a significant adverse impact, which is invoked if GHG storage and petroleum production activities come into conflict.
• Declaration of a storage formation, which establishes whether a proposed storage site is suitable for storing a given amount of GHG.
• The site plan for GHG injection and storage, which includes detail on how the project will be managed, defines what behaviours of the stored substance will be acceptable, describes risk management and contingency plans, and includes a detailed monitoring plan.
•  Incident reporting.
• Decommissioning.
• Discharge of securities.

The government has established a new national body (the National Offshore Petroleum Titles Administrator) to regulate the offshore petroleum industry, replacing the previous system of State/Commonwealth Joint Authorities. This new body will also be responsible for the day-to-day administration of offshore GHG injection and storage projects and commenced operations on 1 January 2012.

No major developments are expected in the next 6-12 months because all the necessary parts of the Commonwealth’s regulatory regime for injection and storage are now in place. However, in relation to transport, the Commonwealth is providing support for research into CO₂ pipelines with the objective of developing cost-effective standards for pipelines that will also ensure that transport is safe and secure. This work will progress over the next two years.

State and territory governments have responsibility for regulatory requirements in their jurisdictions. The following, therefore, only addresses those matters which are the direct responsibility of the Australian Government.

The government recognises the importance of public engagement in all phases of a CO₂ storage project.

In undertaking exploration for offshore for storage sites, industry is required to consult with other users of the sea (including the offshore petroleum industry, the fishing industry, shipping, defence, telecommunications, and native title interests). In addition, any activities have to a meet a range of environmental approvals, which may include consultation under environmental protection legislation (the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Commonwealth)). These requirements are identical to those required of the offshore petroleum industry.

The Commonwealth’s regulatory framework for CCS requires that information on a proposed injection and storage project (in the form of a summary of the site plan) be made publicly available before a project can be approved and provides that any comments will be taken into account by the regulator as part of the approval process. While the regulatory framework does not formally require proponents to undertake consultation before lodging a site plan for approval, they are advised to do so. However, the regulations require a site plan to include a report on consultations undertaken and a strategy for on-going consultation with stakeholders over the life of the operation. Projects are also likely to trigger further public consultations under environmental protection legislation.

Where the Commonwealth is providing funding support for on-shore CO₂ storage projects, it requires proponents to develop and implement a community consultation plan which identifies key stakeholders, outlines proposed community consultation processes, and to report back on the implementation and outcomes from the process.

Review of existing legal framework

British Columbia is in the process of drafting a regulatory framework for CCS. The CCS regulatory framework builds on British Columbia’s existing legislation and regulations within the oil and gas industry.

CCS projects may undergo project review and approval via three or four separate processes involving different regulatory authorities. The Ministry of Energy and Mines has the statutory authority to issue storage licenses and leases, administer tenure application processes and manage tenures. Depending on the specifics of the project proposed, a provincial and/or federal environmental assessment could be required. The British Columbia Oil and Gas Commission has the regulatory authority for the exploration and use of storage reservoirs, facilities, wells and pipelines except where a pipeline and related facility is interprovincial in nature, where the authority lies with the National Energy Board.

In British Columbia the Petroleum and Natural Gas Act (P&NG Act) provides the legal basis for the tenuring of underground storage reservoirs. As defined in the P&NG Act, a storage reservoir means “a naturally occurring underground reservoir that is capable of being used for the introduction, disposal, storage or recovery of petroleum, natural gas, water produced in relation to the production of petroleum or natural gas, waste or any other prescribed substance”. Storage reservoirs can include oil and gas bearing formations, but any other formation as well. As the P&NG Act’s definition of natural gas includes its unprocessed constituents, CO₂ from natural gas production can be stored in an underground reservoir. The P&NG Act was amended in 2008 to enable CCS from sources other than natural gas processing by expanding the storage reservoir definition to include “other prescribed substances”. It is anticipated that a regulation prescribing CO₂ from other industrial sources will be finalised in conjunction with the CCS Regulatory Framework.

Part 14 - Underground Storage of the P&NG Act clarifies storage space ownership. The P&NG Act recognises that the pore space required for natural gas storage or CCS purposes may be owned by a private owner or by the Crown. The P&NG Act creates a tool by which pore space ownership, if not already owned by the Crown, can be vested in the Crown for the purposes of creating a storage reservoir. If private ownership exists then under s.128 pore space ownership rights can become vested in the Crown. These rights may then be leased to a private operator in order to facilitate the development of a natural gas storage project or a disposal project. The P&NG Act creates a process by which a person can apply for compensation for loss of the ownership of the pore space due to the vesting order.

Part 14 outlines the tenure disposition process by which companies can be granted the right to use an underground space for storage. Under the P&NG Act, the Ministry of Energy and Mines is the statutory authority for managing storage licences and leases. Section 130 describes the lease application process for a storage reservoir. It outlines who may apply: 130 (1) The holder of a petroleum or natural gas permit, drilling licence or lease or an storage exploration licence may apply to the minister for a lease of a storage reservoir that is owned by the government; how they can apply – 130 (2) An applicant for a lease must make the application to the minister in a form suitable to the minister; and, government’s response - 130 (3) The minister may lease a storage reservoir that is owned by the government to a person who applies and the minister may grant a lease that is different than the one applied for or may refuse to grant a lease. The Minister of Energy and Mines has considerable discretion in deciding whether or not to approve an application for a storage license or lease as well as the term and conditions of the lease.

When a major project or facility is proposed in British Columbia an environmental assessment by one or more government agencies may be required. For example, an interprovincial pipeline triggers an environmental assessment from the provincial government under the BC Environmental Assessment Act (BCEAA), a federal environmental assessment under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA), and a review from the National Energy Board (NEB).

If a project requires approvals or review from more than one of the authorities listed above the review may be co-ordinated in an effort to expedite the process and avoid duplication. To facilitate this co-ordination, agreements have been signed between provincial and federal levels of government and the NEB.

In British Columbia, the Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) manages the assessment of proposed major projects as required by the BCEAA. Projects become reviewable in three ways:

• The projects meet certain thresholds as prescribed under the Reviewable Projects Regulation. Most major projects are reviewable based on this regulation.
• The Minister of Environment designates the project as reviewable.
• The proponent applies to the EAO for the project to be designated as reviewable.

Natural gas processing, energy storage facilities and transmission pipelines are oil and gas projects that are deemed to be reviewable under the Reviewable Projects Regulation.

British Columbia has a mature oil and gas regulatory regime that was recently modernised in the 2008 Oil and Gas Activities Act. Under the Oil and Gas Activities Act, the Oil and Gas Commission (OGC) is the regulator of all oil and gas activities. The exploration and use of a storage reservoir is defined in the Act to be an oil and gas activity. As an agent of the government, the OGC fulfils government responsibilities to review applications, issue authorisations and regulate projects on lands within provincial jurisdiction, both private and Crown. CO₂ storage or disposal into a storage reservoir requires the regulatory approval of the OGC. Regulations for the injection and underground storage of gases currently exist to facilitate the disposal of acid gas from the natural gas processing industry. In northeast British Columbia there are currently twelve acid gas disposal sites re-injecting a mixture of CO₂ and hydrogen sulphide deep underground into depleted gas pools or saltwater-filled rock formations.

The CCS regulatory framework under development will address identified gaps in the current regulatory framework. Identified areas include site selection, monitoring, measuring and verification and, long-term liability.

Broader context: British Columbia’s climate action policy and legislation

The Government of British Columbia has passed a number of significant pieces of climate action legislation that drive the adoption of emissions mitigation measures such as CCS. Brought into force on 1 January 2008, the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Target Act (GGRTA) sets a target for British Columbia’s emissions to be lowered by 33% by 2020 and 80% by 2050 from 2007 levels. These targets drive development of supporting legislation, regulation and policy that reduce GHG emissions.

The Carbon Neutral Government Regulation under the GGRTA also requires each public sector organisation to be carbon neutral. This includes measuring energy use and GHG emissions, taking steps to conserve energy where possible and economical, reducing remaining emissions to net-zero through offsets through Pacific Carbon Trust and reporting out publicly. Since industrial process, venting and fugitive emissions are not currently taxed or capped within British Columbia, projects where these emissions are captured and stored could be eligible for offsets until those emissions have been regulated or have a carbon price.

British Columbia was the first province to introduce legislation authorising hard limits ("caps") on GHG emissions through the Greenhouse Gas Reduction (Cap and Trade) Act (GGR(CT)A). This legislation would enable BC’s participation in the trading system being developed with other jurisdictions through the Western Climate Initiative (WCI). The GGR(CT)A Reporting Regulation requires all facilities, oil and gas operations or electricity import operations with 10 000 tonnes or more of GHG emissions to quantify and report emissions levels to British Columbia. Third party verification is required for operations with emissions of 25 000 tonnes or more.

British Columbia, through the 2008 Carbon Tax Act, is also the only jurisdiction in North America to have implemented a broad-based revenue-neutral carbon tax. The carbon tax started July 1, 2008 at a rate of CAD 10 per metric ton on combustion emissions and rises by CAD 5/t a year for the subsequent four years, reaching CAD 30 per metric ton by 1 July 2012. Although not in force at this time, section 84 of the Act enables the Lieutenant Governor in Council through regulation to waive or reduce the tax payable on emissions stored or sequestered in accordance with provisions of the Environmental Management Act.

The 2007 BC Energy Plan has set the performance standard of zero GHG emissions for any new coal-fired electricity generation facilities. This standard allows for the development of coal-fired generation only if in combination with CCS.

Federal government

On 23 June 2010, the Government of Canada (GoC) announced that it is taking action to reduce GHG emissions in the electricity sector by moving forward with regulations on coal-fired electricity generation. On 27 August 2011, the GoC published proposed Reduction of Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Coal-Fired Generation of Electricity Regulations in Canada Gazette Part I. These regulations, which are scheduled to come into effect on 1 July 2015, propose to require all new coal-fired units, as well as units reaching the end of their economic life, to meet a stringent performance standard based on the emissions performance of high-efficiency natural gas combined cycle generation. Under the proposed regulations, new units and units reaching the end of their economic life that incorporate technology for CCS could receive a temporary exemption from the standard until 2025. The proposed regulations also contain provisions that give recognition to units that implement CCS before they are subject to the performance standard. A 60-day comment period closed 26 October 2011.

• Announcement by Canada’s Minister of the Environment, the Honourable Peter Kent, about the proposed regulations: www.ec.gc.ca/default.asp?lang=En&n=6F2DE1CA-1&news=70D4C0D9-45C3-4410-8B13-8A648EC1A144
•  Environment Canada news release with further details:  www.ec.gc.ca/default.asp?lang=En&n=714D9AAE-1&news=2E5D45F6-E0A4-45C4-A49D-A3514E740296

The GoC continues to work with London Protocol parties to update the guidance on the assessment and permitting of the storage of CO₂ streams in sub-seabed geological formations, with a view to considering movement and how that should be addressed in terms of information sharing, consent, mitigation and longer term monitoring. The Canadian government is also currently undertaking the necessary steps to ratify the 2009 London Protocol amendment. Canada is also working with the United States through the US-Canada Clean Energy Dialogue to discuss compatibility in regulatory standards and is actively engaged in other international CCS dialogue pertaining to advancing the development of CCS regulatory frameworks.

Provincial governments

Alberta is conducting a CCS Regulatory Framework Assessment (RFA) to ensure that its CCS regulatory framework is comprehensive. The GoC is represented in this process. An overview of the Alberta CCS regulatory context is provided in the Regional jurisdiction contributions section on page 64. 

British Columbia is in the process of drafting a regulatory framework for CCS. A review of the existing legal framework has been conducted. An overview is provided in the Regional jurisdiction contributions section on page 66. British Columbia is also a participant in the Alberta RFA. 

In Saskatchewan, CO₂ transportation (pipeline), injection and storage are regulated under The Oil and Gas Conservation Act (the Act) and The Pipelines Act, 1998, administered by the Ministry of Energy and Resources. In May 2011, an amendment to the Act passed the third reading and received Royal Assent. The Act was proclaimed on 1 April 2012, under which the Oil and Gas Conservation Regulations, 2012 came into effect. The provisions in the amendment that relate to CO₂ injection and storage include:

•  Expanding and clarifying the purpose of the Act to include the regulation of the injection, storage and withdrawal of substances, including CO₂ and other GHGs.
• Replacing the term “non-oil-and-gas waste” with “non-oil-and-gas substance” and revising its definition to clarify that The Act applies to all substances as defined, not only those that may be considered waste.
• Expands the regulation-making power under the Act to properly regulate and measure the withdrawal and underground storage of substances (such as CO₂) from and to a well for commercial, industrial or other uses (such as enhanced oil recovery).

Bill 157, The Oil and Gas Conservation Amendment Act, 2011 can be found at the following link: www.qp.gov.sk.ca/documents/english/Chapters/2011/Chap-11.pdf

The Oil and Gas Conservation Regulations, 2012 can be found at the following link: http://www.qp.gov.sk.ca/documents/English/Regulations/Regulations/O2R6.pdf

Saskatchewan is also a participant in the Alberta RFA.

CCS Nova Scotia, a non-profit public-private-academic research consortium, is in the final year of research into determining the technical and economic feasibility of the capture, transport and storage of CO₂ from coal-fired electrical generating facilities in Nova Scotia. The research extends to options for storage and transportation both onshore and offshore. Reports include geological assessments, capture and transportation options in addition to ancillary activities such as a regulatory/legal report, risk management roadmap and a public/stakeholder awareness plan for the possible deployment of a pilot CCS project, all developed with a Nova Scotia perspective.

The final GoC Reduction of Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Coal-Fired Generation of Electricity Regulations are expected to be published in 2012. In Nova Scotia, all research work is expected to be completed by the third quarter of 2012.

Generally speaking, the GoC is required to ensure that an environmental assessment (EA) is conducted prior to making certain decisions in relation to a project as defined under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEA Act). The three most common EAs conducted under the CEA Act are screenings, comprehensive studies and panel reviews.

For screening level EAs, conducting public consultation is at the discretion of the GoC. In making the determination of whether to conduct public consultation for a screening, the GoC considers several factors such as: the likelihood of public concern or interest, whether the project involves a new or un-tested technology, whether the project is occurring in a location with environmental sensitivities, etc. Currently, all of the CCS projects for which a federal EA has been required (e.g. Shell Quest, Enhance, Husky Lashburn and Tangleflags) were subject to screening level EAs. Of these, the GoC conducted public consultation pursuant to subsection 18(3) of the CEA Act on only one, the Shell Quest CCS project. The public was provided an opportunity to comment on the scope of the project, the scope of the EA and the federal screening report.

The GoC EA documents in relation to the Shell Quest project, including the decision that the project is not likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects, are available from the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency’s web site: www.acee-ceaa.gc.ca/050/details-eng.cfm?evaluation=55916

Further, the Shell Quest project was recently approved with conditions by the province of Alberta’s primary energy regulator, the Energy Resources Conservation Board: www.ercb.ca/decisions/2012/2012-ABERCB-008.pdf

For comprehensive studies and panel reviews, public consultation is mandatory under the CEA Act, however, to date none of the CCS projects have been subject to a comprehensive study or review panel process.

The Ministry of the Environment submited a law for transposition of the EU CO₂ Storage Directive to the Government of the Czech Republic. On 25 October 2011, the government passed the Act on the storage of carbon dioxide into natural rock structures and amending certain laws in its resolution No. 783.

The governmental proposal of this Act was forwarded to the Parliament of the Czech Republic.

It is expected that the House of Representatives will approve the proposal upon the first reading. After the Senate approves the proposal, it will be signed by the President and come into force 30 days after publication in the Collection of laws.

It has been proposed to postpone the day of coming into force of the provisions concerning the licensing regime in relation to the operation of storage of CO₂ (§ 3 to 6 of the Act) to 1 January 2017. The District Mining Offices will not be able to issue operating permits for storage of CO₂ up until this date, but individual operators will be able to prepare for the legal conditions for the storage of CO₂ in the Czech Republic.

The most promising storage sites are currently considered to be aquifers in northern Bohemia and depleted oil fields in southern Moravia. Furthermore, several options of carbon capture and use are being evaluated.

The government’s Act on the storage of carbon dioxide into natural rock structures and amending certain laws assumes that the public’s representatives will be the participants in the administrative procedure for issuing operating permits for the storage of CO₂.

According to § 4 par. 1 of the Act the participants of the administrative procedure for issuing operating permits for the storage of CO₂ will be the operator, the municipality in whose territorial jurisdiction the storage of CO₂ is to occur, persons meeting the requirements under other legislation (e.g. according to § 23 par. 9 of the Act on the assessment of environmental impact) and persons whose rights and legally protected interests or obligations may be affected by the permit.

EU CO₂ Storage Directive

EU member states had to transpose the EU CO₂ Storage Directive into national legislation by 25 June 2011. Spain had notified complete transposition on time. Due to incomplete or non-communication of transposition measures, the European Commission launched infringement procedures with Letters of Formal Notice against 26 EU member states. As of June 2012, nine of those cases were closed as full transposition legislation has been communicated in the meantime. The remaining 17 cases are still under assessment. In parallel with the completeness check, the Commission services have started assessing the conformity of the notified transposition measures with the requirements of the EU CO₂ Storage Directive. Timely and correct transposition of the EU CO₂ Storage Directive is of particular importance in member states with CCS demonstration projects in the NER300 funding competition (see below), as award decisions will be conditional upon all relevant national permits being issued within a certain time limit, in accordance with relevant EU legal requirements.

On 28 February 2012, the Commission published its first opinion on a draft CO₂ storage permit that was notified to the Commission services for review pursuant to Article 10 of the EU CO₂ Storage Directive. The purpose of the Commission review is to ensure consistency in the implementation of requirements of the EU CO₂ Storage Directive across the EU and help to enhance public confidence in CCS.

NER 300 funding programme

79 proposals for large-scale demonstration projects involving innovative renewable energy and CCS have passed the member state stage of the NER300 programme and have been submitted to the European Investment Bank (EIB) by the submission deadline of 9 May 2011; 13 CCS project proposals were submitted. The EIB finalised its financial and technical due diligence assessment and reported to the Commission services in February 2012 with a list of ranked projects according to the criteria set out in the NER300 Decision. Since December 2011, the EIB has been monetising the first 200 million ETS allowances for the co-financing of projects selected under the first call for proposals.

The Commission services will continue to ensure timely and correct transposition of the EU CO₂ Storage Directive.

After finalisation of the financial and technical due diligence assessment by the EIB earlier this year, the Commission services are verifying the eligibility of projects and carrying out competitiveness checks as necessary. The monetisation of the first 200 million allowances has to be completed by early October 2012. Award decisions are envisaged by the end of 2012. The Commission services will also set up structures and procedures for knowledge sharing under the NER 300 programme.

The Finnish government prepared the law for CCS which will implement the EU CO₂ Storage Directive. The law was approved by the Parliament in June 2012.

The approved law forbids the storage of CO₂ in the Finnish territory, due to the lack of suitable geological formations. However, storing volumes up to 100 000 tonnes for research and technology development purposes may be permitted. CO₂ potentially captured in Finland may only be exported for storage in geological formations located within the European Union.

Finland’s CCS law will come into force on 15 July 2012.

Over the last twelve months, France has finalised transposition of the EU CO₂ Storage Directive and notified the European Commission of this achievement. Decree n° 2011-1411 dated 31 of October 2011 on the geological storage of carbon dioxide entered into force on 1 November 2011. This decree completes law level provisions that entered into force in 2010.

This decree settles practical provisions related to seeking and granting exclusive rights to explore (exploration permits) as well as seeking and granting storage concessions, both addressing access right to the underground. Its scope also encompasses exploration activities and granting of storage permits. Details are set out about documents to be handed to the competent authority as part of these processes.

Monitoring, closure, post-closure of storage sites as well as transfer of responsibility procedures are also addressed in this decree.

This regulation does not cover some of the topics unresolved by the EU CO₂ Storage Directive itself, including the calculation method for financial security or financial security mechanisms, criteria for the composition of the CO₂ stream, storage perimeter, etc. However, it brings complementary provisions for example on injection tests that take place under the exploration permit: these complementary provisions address CO₂ stream quantity injection thresholds and the necessary protection of underground waters.

This decree has since been codified in the Environmental Code as articles R.229-57 to R.229-102.

No further regulatory developments are expected to occur in the next 6-12 months and beyond. However, technical works will be carried out to deepen some key issues around geological storage including:

• CO₂ stream composition.
• Storage perimeter and migration issues.
•  Financial security.

France is addressing public engagement issues very carefully.

Debate on CCS has taken place in the framework of a wider debate on sustainable development policies – the so called Grenelle Environnement which took place in 2007. As a result the law n°2009-967 entered into force. Its article 22, related to CCS, states that CCS development will be accompanied by appropriate legal framework development and supported financially.

Then, while drafting the various legislative provisions that have now entered into force, public consultation took place via internet (30 days’ consultation).

Finally, as far as CCS projects are concerned, public engagement takes place at various levels all throughout the projects.

Exploration activities

• Public consultation is to take place as part of the granting process of an exploration permit. This provision, which concerns any exploration permit, is currently under review by Parliament.
• A public enquiry is to take place for activities subject to an authorisation regime, such as injection tests.
• Establishment of a public information commission whenever injection tests take place.

Storage activities

•  A public enquiry is to take place as part of the granting process of pore space access concession.
•  A public enquiry is to take place as part of the granting of a storage permit.
• Finally, a public information commission is to be set up whenever test injections take place.

The legislation on CCS is currently passing the last steps of the legislative process and is going to enter into force soon. The German Bundestag passed the draft act on 7 July 2011. The Bundesrat decided on 23 September 2011 not to consent to the draft. The German government applied for a formal conciliation procedure on 26 October 2011. The conciliation committee proposed amendments to Parliament on 27 June 2012; both chambers, Bundestag and Bundesrat, consented to the amended draft at end-June 2012.

Entry into force within the next month.

This technology is met with great reservations in particular in areas that would be suitable for CO₂ storage. Numerous citizens' initiatives have sprung up that have created a network of contacts all over the country. The main reasons for their rejection are the ecological concerns put forward by some environmental organisations and doubts regarding the usefulness of the technology in general. The main concerns vary among the different environmental organisations. BUND (Friends of the Earth) and Greenpeace, for example, have reservations against CCS technology in particular because the CO₂ to be stored stems from burning fossil energy sources, while the WWF and Germanwatch are in favour of testing and demonstrating CCS technology especially with a view to reducing process-related emissions from industry.

Public resistance is the major barrier to reaching the demonstration phase for CCS in Germany. It seems necessary to clarify that CCS will only reach commercial-scale deployment after the demonstration phase has shown the economic, technical and environmental feasibility of CCS and that CCS will primarily play a role where other mitigation options do not exist.

The law covers a lot of these aspects. When drawing up a new draft in 2010/2011 the latest developments in CCS technologies were taken into account. As a consequence it was decided that German legislation should be limited to the testing and demonstration of CCS. The amount of CO₂ to be stored every year was restricted to three million tonnes of CO₂ per storage site and a national total of eight million tonnes CO₂. Thus, the bill allowed for no more than three larger demonstration projects in Germany. In addition, a deadline for the application for storage permits of 31 December 2016 was included. Amendments in the conciliation procedure were the following: in order to further stress the character of the law as a demonstration law the amounts of CO₂ were restricted to 1.3 million tonnes of CO₂ per storage site and a national total of four million tonnes CO₂. Furthermore, the time lapse between decommissioning of the storage site and transfer of responsibility was extended from 30 years to 40 years. The much contented states’ clause – allowing states to exclude territory from CO₂ storage – was amended to clarify the obligation to take into account objective reasons when excluding state territory.

Applying the highest environmental and safety standards for storing CO₂ in geological formations remains one of the key aspects for public acceptance. Therefore Germany’s CCS law regulates that a permit for a storage site can be granted only after a planning approval procedure has been carried out, requiring inter alia that the storage site is safe in the long term, dangers to human health and the environment are ruled out and that precautionary measures are taken in accordance with the state of science and technology. The public has extended opportunities for participation. The operator has to provide financial security to cover all relevant risks (see Edition 2 of the CCS Review).

Illinois is a primacy state, which means that the implementation of US Underground Injection Control (UIC) regulations and the permitting of certain classes of wells under the federal Clean Water Act is administered by the Illinois Environment Protection Agency (IEPA). Development of the first 1 million tonne saline reservoir storage demonstration in Illinois was permitted by the IEPA under a Class I Nonhazardous permit classification. This project is the Illinois Basin-Decatur Project (IBDP) in collaboration with the Archer Daniels Midland Company in Decatur, Illinois. The permit application was submitted in January 2008 and the final authorisation to inject was received in November 2011. During this period, the injection well was permitted and drilled and two other wells were drilled for monitoring as permit modifications were approved during this nearly four-year period. Continuous injection began in mid-November 2011 at 1 000 tonnes per day. Permitting took place in this way because IEPA felt that there was the most background and precedent to issue a Class I permit rather than a Class V experimental permit at the time the original application was submitted.

Currently, the new Class VI UIC regulations, issued by the US EPA, now apply to CO₂ storage wells and Class I permits are no longer being issued in the US for storage. Regardless of current well status, all existing, permitted storage projects were required to apply for a Class VI permit by 10 December 2011, and these permits are being handled by the regional US EPA offices. As of the end of 2011, no state had applied for primacy in issuing Class VI permits, but several states are in discussion with the US EPA and may take primacy at a future date. The Illinois State Geological Survey leads one of the US Department of Energy regional carbon sequestration partnerships and is developing the IBDP, but the actual permit holder is the Archer Daniels Midland Company which owns the site and is the supplier of the CO₂ from its ethanol fermentation facility in Decatur, Illinois.

A second project at Decatur, the Illinois Industrial Sources Carbon Capture and Storage project, submitted a Class VI permit application to the US EPA Region 5 office in Chicago, Illinois in July 2011. This was the first submittal of a Class VI permit in the US at this scale. The project will inject approximately 2.5 million tonnes over three years. This project is an industrial scale-up of the IBDP and the expectation is that the permitting timeline may allow drilling to begin in mid- to late 2012.

US EPA Region 5 is also handling a permit application for a commercial coal gasification project in central Illinois that proposes to produce a combination of electricity and synthetic natural gas and store, or sell for enhanced oil recovery, a major portion of their CO₂. Legislative uncertainty exists around the ability of the project to secure offtake agreements, but developers are proceeding with the UIC permitting process in the interim.

In another area, legislation was drafted and introduced to the General Assembly (state legislature) of Illinois in 2011 to address ownership rights of pore space and definitions and requirements related to storage project development in the state. These provisions relate, for example, to unitisation of lease blocks to allow project developers to move forward if the majority (but not all) of affected pore space owners concur with project development. Also, the surface owner would own the pore space storage rights and this distinction would be made relative to any mineral rights owners, as has been done in several other states in the US. These provisions would be in addition to Class VI permitting under the UIC programme. The legislation was not voted on by the full General Assembly in 2012, but it is expected to be revised and reintroduced in the legislative session that convenes from January through May 2013.

Statutory Instrument No. 575 of 2011, European Communities (Geological Storage of Carbon Dioxide) Regulations 2011 (SI), was published on 18 November 2011 and was laid before the Oireachtas on 22 November 2011. The SI transposes the EU CO₂ Storage Directive by prohibiting storage of CO₂ in amounts greater than 100 kilotonnes in the territory of the state, its exclusive economic zone and on its continental shelf.

None expected.

No CO₂ storage projects are envisaged.

The transposition process of the EU CO₂ Storage Directive has been successfully completed and the Directive is now law in the Italian legal framework (legislative decree 14 September 2011, no. 162, Attuazione della direttiva 2009/31/CE in materia di stoccaggio geologico del biossido di carbonio, nonche' modifica delle direttive 85/337/CEE, 2000/60/CE, 2001/80/CE, 2004/35/CE, 2006/12/CE, 2008/1/CE e del Regolamento (CE) n. 1013/2006, published in the Italian Official Journal no. 231 of 4 October 2011). Italy implemented the legislative decree through a number of implementation decrees, including:

• Exploration permits.
• Storage permits.
• Transfer of responsibility.
• Financial security.
• Financial mechanism.
• Financial provisions.
• Access to transport network and storage sites.
•  Information to the public.
• Data reporting to the European Commission.

In the next 6-12 months, Italy will finalise the legislative decree implementation process   outlined above, including starting work on an implementation decree on selection of storage sites (to be issued by September 2013).

According to the legislative decree no. 162 the Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of the Environment will make information available to the public regarding the environmental aspects of the geological storage of CO₂ under the applicable European and national legislation. Contents and modalities of the dissemination of information were defined by an implementation decree of the Minister of Economic Development in consultation with the Minister of the Environment, issued within 180 days from the date of entry into force of the decree no. 162 (i.e. March 2012).

As part of a process that commenced in 2011 and is envisaged to occur up to 2014, Japan has been accumulating knowledge about the marine ecosystem in waters around Japan, which is essential for the environmental impact assessment review (refer to Article 18.12 of the Marine Pollution Prevention Law).

Work on accumulating knowledge about the marine ecosystem in waters around Japan will continue.

None.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Energy and the Ministry of Labour continue to work on the new regulations on transport and storage of CO₂ in sub-sea reservoirs on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The work has been somewhat delayed, due to internal considerations in the Ministries involved on the formulation of the draft regulations. Consequently, no draft regulations have as yet been submitted for public consultation.

The plan is still to submit two new sets of regulations relating to transport and storage of CO₂ in sub-sea reservoirs on the Norwegian Continental Shelf for public consultation at the same time. These regulations will be drafted by the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy and the Ministry of Environment, respectively. The draft worked out by the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy will regulate transport and storage of CO₂ in relation to managing the CO₂ and the geological reservoirs as natural resources (resource management), as well as issues related to health, safety and work environment in this respect. The Ministry of Environment will regulate the environmentally safe storage of CO₂. The two drafts are planned to be submitted for public consultation within the next few months.

In accordance with the requirements of the EU CO₂ Storage Directive, Norway plans to include provisions on impact assessments in the new regulations pertaining to transport and storage of CO₂ on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The requirements will be in line with those included in Directive 85/337/EEC as amended, implying that an impact assessment shall be carried out by the operator before development of a storage location on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

The impact assessment process shall start by the operator formulating a draft programme for the impact assessment. The draft shall be submitted for public consultation for at least 6 weeks and any comments are to be considered as part of finalising the impact assessment programme. This programme will be subject to the approval of the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy. The impact assessment itself shall then be carried out by the operator on the basis of the approved programme. When the impact assessment has been carried out, the assessment shall be submitted to public consultation for a period of three months, and in no case less than 6 weeks. Any comments shall be taken into consideration as the assessment is submitted to the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy as part of a plan to develop and operate the storage reservoir. This plan will then be subject to approval by the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy. The new provisions described above will be based on existing requirements in the Petroleum Act pertaining to petroleum activities on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

Malaysia undertook a scoping study for CCS in Malaysia in 2010, which investigated amongst other areas the legal and regulatory aspects of the implementation of CCS in the country. The scoping study reported that there was a lack of strong existing legal and regulatory structures in Malaysia to address all three components of CCS, i.e. capture, transport and storage.

As a step forward, Malaysia undertook a number of activities in 2011, including participating in the Global CCS Institute Policy, Legal and Regulatory Study Group (PLR-SG) on 5 October 2011. Malaysia also participated in the APEC CCS Regulatory Review in July 2011 to understand the gaps in the current regulatory framework to address CCS implementation. The findings of the study will form a good platform for launching work on the regulatory regime for CCS in Malaysia.

Malaysia also organised a panel discussion session on Carbon Capture and Storage and Low Emissions Strategy on 9 September 2011 in Kuala Lumpur, as part of the capacity development work programme for the Ministry for Energy, Green Technology and Water (KeTTHA) in collaboration with the Global CCS Institute during the Malaysia International Greentech and Eco Products Exhibition and Conference (IGEM-2011). The discussion covered Malaysia’s current energy outlook and insight on how CCS could fit into Malaysia’s Low Emission Strategy, by providing information on costs, industrial uses for CO₂ and perspectives on CCS from different industry players.

Finally, together with the IEA KeTTHA hosted a CCS roundtable in Putrajaya, Malaysia on 21 March 2011. The aim of the roundtable was to explore the current status of CCS globally, including legal and regulatory developments, and the status of the technology in Malaysia.

In the next 6-12 months, Malaysia is expected to continue work on capacity building in CCS. Malaysia will also look into establishing an institutional mechanism to move forward work on CCS. A public-private working group will need to be established to further co-ordinate and plan future work on CCS. Apart from work in the regulatory area, Malaysia will also need to look into CO₂ storage and transportation issues.

• With the support of the Global CCS Institute, work has been undertaken towards a National Strategy on Carbon Capture, Use and Storage (CCUS).
• Work has commenced to define the guiding elements for the regulatory framework on CCUS, by the Secretariat of Energy, Secretariat of Economy and Secretariat of Natural Resources and Environment.
• A workshop titled CCS in Mexico: policy strategy options for CCS was held in Mexico City on 7-8 March 2012, with the support of the IEA.
• Negotiations are underway with the World Bank CCS Trust Fund for a donation to support capacity building.
• Mexico has engaged with the Global CCS Institute on capacity building for planning and policy making for CCUS. On 27-28 June 2012 a workshop CO₂ Geological Storage for Earth Sciences students took place in Mexico City.
• On March 2012, SENER and the Electricity Federal Commission (CFE, for its initials in Spanish), released Mexico’s CO₂ Storage Atlas (http://CO₂.energia.gob.mx/CO₂/atlas.html)
• SENER, Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) and the U.S. Department of Energy, released in May 2012, The North American Carbon Storage Atlas, which was produced under the leadership of the North American Carbon Atlas Partnership (www.nacsap.org/).

Aspects of the above mentioned activities will continue.

In terms of public engagement activities in 2011, CCUS was presented as part of the energy sector technological development agenda. In November 2011, a review on energy innovation (Especial de Innovación Energética Sustentable) was published by the Secretariat of Energy and the Investment Promotion Unit of the Secretariat of Economy (Promexico), which included a specific article on CCUS (www.laspaginasverdes.com/energia/).

During the remainder of 2012, we expect to consider public engagement activities as follows:

• With the support of the World Bank CCS Trust Fund donation (negotiations underway), Mexico will work on the adoption of best practices of public engagement in regards to CCUS.

Since the proposed pilot and demonstration projects are CCS-EOR, public engagement will be

influenced by previous experiences in the power and oil industries. The role of state-owned companies in these projects will potentially facilitate transparency and public engagement.

In 2009, the New Zealand Carbon Capture and Storage Partnership (the Partnership) commissioned research on the potential of CCS for New Zealand. The Partnership includes government and industry contributors. The report was developed to inform the early stages of CCS policy development. The Transfield Worley consortium report CCS in New Zealand – Can Carbon Capture and Storage deliver for New Zealand as we head towards a low carbon future? was released on 2 November 2011. The full technical report and companion summary report can be downloaded at www.straterra.co.nz/CCS.

• A review of the potential for CCS in New Zealand looking at the technical, legal, environmental, and social implications.
• The development of two specific case studies illustrating issues that New Zealand will need to address before embarking on a CCS project. These are:
• Case study one: retrofitting an existing North Island power station with CCS; and
• Case study two: developing a new South Island processing plant with CCS (assuming a new lignite processing facility).

Broadly, the outcome of the case studies was that case study one (retrofitting an existing power station) is currently uneconomic, and that this is likely to remain the case for the foreseeable future. The economics of case study two (developing a processing plant with CCS) were more favourable, but hurdles to overcome include regulatory uncertainty and public acceptance.

Ultimately, for the potential of CCS to be realised, further work is needed to overcome barriers to its adoption. The Ministry of Economic Development (MED) is taking note of this report and will consider it, and any future reports, in order to inform its policy on CCS. MED’s work programme is focused on ensuring an appropriate legislative and regulatory framework is in place to regulate CCS should it be deployed in New Zealand, and to allow for proactive investment decisions.

None.

The Transfield Worley consortium report referenced above states that there may be a number of social perceptions and concerns that adversely impact the future development of CCS in New Zealand, including lack of knowledge of the benefits of CCS; concern about possible issues in relation to New Zealand e.g. seismic issues and leakage; and opposition to technologies associated with the mining and burning of coal.

In last twelve months, work continued on the preparation of regulations transposing the EU CO₂ Storage Directive. In March 2011, the assumptions to amend Polish Geological and Mining Law were adopted by the Council of Ministers. A key element is that the provisions concerning CCS will only apply to the demonstration phase in a transitional period to 2026. On the basis of the assumptions a first draft of an Act was prepared. Currently the Polish Government Legislation Centre in co-operation with the Ministry of the Environment is working on the final wording of the draft. The main issues for now are provisions concerning transfer of responsibility to the competent authority and, related to this, property rights.

Work on the draft of the Act should be finalised in the near future and it will be forwarded for additional consultations with trade unions, employer organisations and The Joint Commission of Government and Local Government (KWRiST). Then the Committee for European Affairs should confirm compliance of the Act with European law and it will be laid down for adoption by government (the Committee of the Council of Ministers and the Council of Ministers). Next the Act will be forwarded to the Parliament, where it will be analysed by the Lower House and then the Upper House.

To identify potential CO₂ storage possibilities in Poland, the Ministry of the Environment has launched a National Program Assessment of formations and structures for safe CO₂ geological storage, including monitoring plans (2008-2012). Within the programme co-operation with a number of industry stakeholders, as well as with European geological surveys and other organisations of relevant expertise was established. The main goal of the programme is to collect and elaborate country-wide geological information necessary for future decisions on exploration and storage permits, according to the EU CO₂ Storage Directive. The scope of this programme includes also public acceptance. There were several seminars, meetings and conferences for public, local authorities, schools and media, to inform about CCS technologies, answer questions and clarify doubts about the safety of CO₂ storage processes. The Ministry of the Environment also issued The interactive atlas that presents the capacity for geological storage of CO₂ in Poland. Nevertheless entrepreneurs planning to develop CCS demonstration projects play the main role in communication with public.

According to the draft regulations, the key moment where public engagement is to occur in the development of CO₂ storage projects will be environmental impact assessment processes both before exploration and at the storage phase. It will be required also in the permitting granting procedure (opinion of the local authorities before exploration and consent before exploitation of the storage site). This will be related with public engagement in land use planning. The role of national authorities and next the operator in those processes will be to propose suitable and safe localisations for geological storage of CO₂. To achieve transparency of storage projects, all permits (concessions), protocols from inspections and environmental decisions will be available to the public.

Public consultations are also provided for in legislative processes (assumptions, acts, regulations).

There have been no explicit drafting amendments to the Queensland Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2009 (GHG Act) over the past twelve months. An amendment included in the Geothermal Energy Act 2010, however, changed the definition of authorised activity to be carried out under the GHG Act. Links between the GHG Act and other Queensland legislation have come under review by CCS proponents during development of target work programmes for exploration and site remediation activity. Potential limitations with regard to the production of water during exploration activities have been identified and trigger requirements under the Water Act 2000. Provisions similar to those in the Petroleum and Gas (Production and Safety) Act 2004 regarding water production related to exploration activities have been suggested as requests for amendment to the GHG Act by the proponents. Testing of the GHG legislation has identified the need for a legislative mapping exercise to be conducted, which is intended to identify the interdependencies apparent between the different areas of resource legislation in the state. Queensland has also continued to participate in development of collaborative frameworks to facilitate CCS projects through the Clean Energy Working Group of the Standing Council on Energy and Resources.

The Queensland Government is currently reviewing the IEA working paper Carbon Capture and the London Protocol: Options for Enabling Transboundary CO₂ Transfer. The conditions imposed by the London Protocol for cross border transportation and disposal of CO₂ are being used to provide context for interstate legislative frameworks that would be required in the event that subsurface migration of injected CO₂ has the potential to cross jurisdictional borders.

The Queensland environment and water regulator has identified the need to develop a guideline for managing the potential impacts of CO₂ storage. The guideline is to include a legislative mapping exercise to identify interdependencies between the various environmental and resource management acts and a technical requirements framework for impact assessment. The aim of the guideline is to provide clear and transparent instructions for CCS proponents to prepare and evaluate a site for CO₂ storage, without causing environmental harm and/ or adverse impacts on the groundwater systems. The guideline will also assist the regulator in evaluating exploration work plan proposals by removing potential ambiguity in the requirements imposed on CCS proponents. The Department of Environment and Resource Management is working in collaboration with the Department of Employment Economic Development and Innovation in the development of a draft guideline. This collaborative effort is intended to provide appropriate regulatory control for CO₂ storage projects without imposing restrictions, which may adversely impact the responsible development of a future CCS industry. This approach is an example of the state’s desire to promote exploitation of its rich natural resource endowment, without causing environmental harm or jeopardising essential groundwater resources.

In October 2011, the South African government published the National Climate Change Response White Paper. In the White Paper, CCS has been named as one of South Africa’s eight Near-term Priority Flagship Programmes which seek to address both mitigation and adaptation, thereby making CCS an integral part of South Africa’s climate change response policy. The CCS Flagship Programme will be led by the Department of Energy (DoE) in partnership with the South African Centre for CCS (SACCCS). The programme includes, among other initiatives, the development of a CCS demonstration plant to store the process emissions from an existing high-CO₂ emissions facility. This inclusion represents an important development for CCS policy in South Africa. More details on the implementation of the CCS Flagship Programme will be available in due course.

During the 2nd South African CCS Week (CCS week) held on 24-28 October 2011, the Minister of Energy announced the formation of an Interdepartmental Task Team (IDTT) on CCS. The IDTT will look at all areas of CCS but will have a special focus on CCS legal and regulatory aspects. The IDTT includes the Department of Energy, Department of Environmental Affairs, Department of Mineral Resources, Department of Trade and Industries, Department of Science and Technology, National Treasury and Department of Transport. However, other government departments and state organs as well as private institutions will be invited as and when required. The DoE is in the process of inviting the Department of Public Enterprise into the IDTT. An inaugural meeting of the IDTT was held on 21 November 2011. The establishment of the IDTT was in part informed by the IEA CCS Model Regulatory Framework and the 2nd Edition of the IEA Carbon Capture and Storage Legal and Regulatory Review, both of which highlight the value of such an inter-agency working group. The IDTT meetings occur bi-annually. The IDTT has recently on 14 June 2012 held its first meeting for this year where parties that contribute on issues of CCS (SACCCS and the World Bank) made presentations to the meeting. The IDTT also resolved to further invite parties involved in a study on legal framework development in South Africa to present at its next meeting and to further finalise its terms of reference before the next meeting.

On 4 May 2012 Cabinet announced that in its ordinary meeting held in Pretoria on 3 May 2012, it endorsed the South African Carbon Capture and Storage Roadmap. The announcement went further to state that one of government’s strategic objectives is mitigation against carbon emissions and adaptation to the impact of climate change. South Africa relies heavily on fossil fuels (coal, gas and oil) for energy production.

The Government’s Long-Term Mitigation Scenarios plan identified CCS as one of the options to mitigate CO₂ emissions. In addition, South Africa has voluntarily committed to reduce CO₂ emissions by 34% in 2020 and by 42% in 2025, on condition that the requisite technological and financial support is provided. CCS can reduce CO₂ emission by 80% to 90%. CCS aims to reduce GHG emissions that contribute to climate change, particularly CO₂ from sources such as electricity generation plants, coal-to-liquids (CTL) plants and cement manufacturing plants.

A workshop on CCS legal and regulatory aspects was also held during CCS Week, hosted by the DoE with the support of SACCCS and the financial support of the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF). The workshop brought together international and South African CCS legal and regulatory experts, officials from various government departments, financial institutions as well as multilateral institutions like the IEA, CSLF and Global CCS Institute.  The aim of the workshop was to improve the understanding of how legal and regulatory developments could proceed in South Africa. Presentations from the CCS Week legal and regulatory workshop can be found on the SACCCS website.

In November/December 2011, the South African Government hosted the COP17/CMP7 climate negotiations in Durban. On the agenda was the ongoing issue of inclusion of CCS in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Given the importance of CCS to South Africa, the resolution of this issue was made a priority by the South African Government and the chair of the negotiations, the Minister of International Relations and Co-operation – the Honourable Ms. Maite Nkoana-Mashabane. With the South African position being put forward by the DoE, a resolution was reached on the issue of modalities and procedures[3] after six years of effort. This development is critically important for CCS in South Africa as it cements an internationally agreed approach to CCS in developing countries, clearing the path for international CCS funding via the CDM and other future funding mechanisms.

SACCCS, supported by the DoE, also had a presentation stand at the climate change negotiations aimed at informing the public about the basics of CCS as well as the current status of CCS in South Africa. Over the course of the two weeks, SACCCS was honoured to have the President of South Africa, Dr. Jacob Zuma and the Minister of Energy of South Africa, Honourable Ms Dipuo Peters, visit the stand.

The DoE together with SACCCS hosted the CCS seminar as one of the DoE’s side events during COP17/CMP7 in Durban on 1 of December 2011.The purpose of the seminar was, amongst others, to enlighten the public about the challenges and opportunities on CCS technology; the role CCS can play in the fight against climate change; an international perspective on the status of CCS; CCS-readiness of developing, non-Annex 1 countries; and the South African and international CCS perspectives. The seminar was honoured by the participation of the Minister of Energy of South Africa as well as local and international experts on CCS.

In the last twelve months, the DoE and World Bank with the support from SACCCS have also called for expressions of interest for the DoE - World Bank CCS Study Task 1: CCS legal and regulatory. The study, which commenced in the second quarter of 2012, aims to build on work done to date and assist the DoE in developing a CCS legal and regulatory framework that would allow for execution of the CO₂ Test Injection and further commercial application of the CCS technology in South Africa.

In the next 6-12 months, South Africa will be holding the follow-up meetings of the IDTT on CCS. The IDTT on CCS will ensure that all the relevant government departments are involved and play their rightful roles in developing CCS.

During this period, SACCCS will complete three studies looking at CCS legal and regulatory aspects in South Africa. The CO₂ Test Injection Scoping Study and the South African – European CCS Study (SAfECCS) will together outline how the proposed CO₂ Test Injection relates to existing South Africa law. The outcomes of this work will help inform the DoE – World Bank Study. SACCCS will also see the completion of their CCS Ready study which will suggest an appropriate definition of CCS Ready in South Africa.

The DoE will also engage the Global CCS Institute regarding the use of the Legal and Regulatory Toolkit in its quest to develop a fitting CCS legal and regulatory environment for CCS development in South Africa.

CCS public engagement is seen by the South African Government and SACCCS as a prerequisite for the successful development and deployment of CCS in South Africa. As such, public engagement will form a key topic for discussion in the IDTT.

To date, CCS public engagement has been discussed extensively within the DoE and with SACCCS. SACCCS in now in the process of developing public engagement plans around CCS nationally and around the CO₂ Test Injection at both a national and local levels. To support this work, CCS public engagement has been included in the DoE - World Bank CCS study as Task 4: Public Engagement.  As such, a contractor has been employed to conduct the study expected to be finalised by end December 2012.  This task will also look to develop two public engagement plans for the CO₂ Test Injection project, one at a local level and the other at a national level. Similarly to Task 1 of the study discussed above, a call was circulated for expressions of interest for Task 4: Public Engagement, with the study looking to commence in the second quarter of 2012.

During the CCS Week in October 2011, there was also a workshop held on CCS public engagement in South Africa. The workshop involved speakers who have first hand experience developing and implementing public engagement plans around real CCS projects – the Decatur project in the US and the Otway project in Australia.  The workshop also involved a presentation from Eskom, the national electricity utility, discussing their public engagement experience with power plants in South Africa. The CCS Week and other seminars/ workshops on CCS have also helped to advance public awareness of CCS. 

CCS in South Australia is regulated under the Petroleum and Geothermal Energy Act 2000 (P&GE Act) and associated Petroleum and Geothermal Energy Regulations 2000.

Amendments to the legislation in 2009 implemented special purpose gas storage licences and also specified no royalty payments on injection for storage purposes. Gas storage licences allow storage of petroleum, CO₂ and other regulated substances under the P&GE Act. To date, nine gas storage licences have been granted in South Australia, and an additional 42 gas storage licences have been applied for. These gas storage applications will be processed towards grants of licences in due course.

The South Australian Government progresses with CCS regulation and technology through active participation in the Carbon Storage Taskforce, the Federal-State Carbon Dioxide Geosequestration Regulatory Working Group, and the Global CCS Institute.

Given sufficient incentives, the injection and storage of CO₂ into the depleted oil and gas fields of the Cooper and Eromanga Basins in the state’s northeast is a possibility.

The state government chose to support the CO₂CRC (Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies) last year through funding from South Australia’s Plan to Accelerate Exploration, or PACE, Energy program. The new Department for Manufacturing, Industry, Trade, Resources and Energy (DMITRE) is also providing in-kind support towards the CO₂CRC’s Research Centre at the University of Adelaide.

Activities (including CO₂ storage projects) regulated under the P&GE Act cannot be carried out unless there is an approved Statement of Environmental Objectives (SEO) in place, prepared on the basis of an Environmental Impact Report (EIR). The environment in the P&GE Act includes natural, social and economic environments and hence deals with all associated risks. The EIR is prepared by the proponent and identifies:

• Specific features of the environment that can reasonably be expected to be affected by the activities, with particular reference to the physical and biological aspects of the environment and existing land uses.
• Reasonably foreseeable events associated with the activities that could pose a threat to the relevant environment and estimated frequency of these events.
• Potential consequences of these events on the environment.
• Actions proposed to be taken to manage or address potential consequences.
• Relevant owners of land and affected stakeholders.

The SEO sets out the natural, social and economic environmental objectives to be achieved to address the risks identified in the EIR and specific criteria to be used (by both the proponent and government) to assess the achievement of the objectives. SEO’s are reviewed by DMITRE once every five years to ensure objectives remain up to date and relevant.

The P&GE Act requires an environmental significance assessment to be undertaken by DMITRE on the basis of information provided in the EIR. This assessment classifies the level of environmental impact of the proposed activities, which is then referred to other state government agencies as relevant for concurrence.

Once agreed, the environmental impact classification is used to determine the level of stakeholder consultation that DMITRE will conduct on the EIR and SEO document. In all cases, consultation on the EIR and SEO is undertaken with other state government agencies. For activities classified as medium environmental impact, DMITRE also consults with directly affected landowners, relevant stakeholders and the general public.

All EIRs, SEOs and environmental significance assessments are publicly available documents.

Through the development of the EIR and SEO documents and consultation undertaken by both the proponent and DMITRE, stakeholders (including other state government agencies and landowners) are provided with opportunities to raise any issues of concern they may have with the proposed activities.

No further developments have occurred since the second edition.

It is not possible at the moment to foresee new regulatory developments in the next 6-12 months.

Spain approved Law 40/2010 transposing the EU CO₂ Storage Directive in December 2010.[1] Both contain rules addressing public engagement. In this regard, the Spanish Law is fully in line with the directive.

www.marm.es/es/cambio-climatico/publicaciones/documentacion/ley_40_2010_tcm7-132047.pdf

To raise awareness of CCS, the Swiss Federal Office of Energy and Swisselectric research, a private energy research grant-giving organisation, held a workshop titled Carbon Capture and Storage: Current status and future perspectives with a focus on power generation on 31 August 2011. Representatives of Vattenfall, Alpiq, Alstom, various Federal Offices, universities and the Swiss Federal Energy Research Commission discussed CCS in terms of their priorities and the current status in Switzerland. Utility companies underscored that principal hurdles are encountered in storage rather than capture or transport issues. For Switzerland in particular, there does not exist today an enabling political, societal, regulatory and process-oriented framework that would allow planning and execution of CCS projects. Alpiq, a major Swiss utility, concluded that a lack of future for CCS owes to the absence of such a framework rather than technological and geological constraints.

There have been no further developments concerning CCS in the last twelve months.

There are no CCS legal or regulatory developments expected in the next 6-12 months.

Public participation in general

In Switzerland, the people are the supreme political authority and have extensive decision-making powers. The longstanding democratic tradition, but also the comparatively small size of the population and the country, as well as a high literacy rate and broad range of media services are crucial to the proper functioning of this particular system of government. Swiss nationals have the following political rights at federal level:

• Elections.
• Voting.
• Popular Initiatives.
• Referendums.

Such extensive rights of participation in decision making and approval procedures not only exist on federal level, but also on a cantonal level.

Public participation under the Spatial Planning Act (SPA)

Although Swiss law does not provide regulation concerning public engagement in the development of CCS storage projects in particular, it provides public participation rights for the development of building projects in general.

Swiss Federal Law only provides the legal framework for spatial planning (article 75 of the Swiss Federal Constitution). The competence for implementation regulation concerning spatial planning resides with the member states of the Swiss Confederation, the cantons (article 10 paragraph 1 SPA). Granting permits for subsurface planning or building fall within the cantons’ remit as well. The mandatory procedures may vary from one canton to another. However, building permits are usually granted by the municipal authorities.

Article 4 of the SPA constitutes a minimal information and participation standard for the public. Authorities entrusted with tasks of planning must inform the public about objectives and procedural processes in accordance with the SPA. Furthermore, they have to make sure that the public has the chance to participate appropriately in the fields of planning. Most cantons and municipalities have established rights of appeal and objection that may be exercised by the public. Furthermore, plans subject to the SPA are public.

Last but not least, SPA articles 33 and 34 stipulate a minimal standard concerning judicial appeal on cantonal and federal level against rulings and planning that are based on the SPA and its implementation regulation.

Public participation under the Environmental Protection Act (EPA)[4]

Furthermore, according to article 55 paragraph 1 EPA and article 12 of the Nature and Cultural Heritage Act (NCHA) environmental protection organisations have the right of appeal against rulings of the cantonal or federal authorities on the planning, construction or modification of installations for which an environmental impact assessment in terms of Article 10a EPA (article 55 EPA) is required or on the planning, construction or modification of installations that lie within the scope of federal tasks (article 12 NCHA), subject to the following requirements:

• The organization is active in Switzerland on a national basis.
• It pursues non-profit making objects; any commercial activities must serve to achieve the non-profit making objects.

The right of appeal is available to organisations only for complaints in legal fields that have formed their objects in terms of their articles for a minimum of ten years (article 55 paragraph 2 EPA). The environmental organisations that have the right of appeal are designated by the Federal Council.

The authority notifies the organisations of its ruling under Article 55 paragraph 1 by written notice or by publication in the Official Federal Gazette or in the cantonal organ of publication. If federal or cantonal law provides for an objection procedure, applications must also be published in accordance with paragraph 1 (article 55a paragraph 1 and 2 of EPA / article 12a paragraph 1 and 2 NCHA).

Addendum

The reference to 268 gigatonnes in Part 1: Developments over the last six months of the Swiss entry in the second edition of the CCS Review[7] should read 2.68 gigatonnes.

In response to Senate Bill 1387 (SB 1387), the statutory impetus and framework for CCS in the State of Texas, the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) has promulgated new rules. These rules are codified as 16 TAC Chapter 5 (20 December 2010). These new state rules implement technical, financial, legal, and administrative considerations in accordance with the legislation, and where applicable, in concert with existing state rules. These rules are intended to address issues related to capture and storage of anthropogenic CO₂ (CCS-a). Anthropogenic CO₂ is approximately defined as “carbon dioxide that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere that has been: separated from any other fluid stream; or captured from an emission source including an advanced clean energy project or industrial source of emission; and any incidental associated substance derived from capture of CO₂, and any substance added to CO₂ to enable or improve the process of injecting CO₂”.

The first phase of these rules dealt with CCS-a as the state analogue of the federally promulgated rules finalised on 10 December 2010. These new federal rules were promulgated under the Underground Injection Control (UIC) Program of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). The federal rules created a new UIC Class of wells, known as Class VI. These rules are intended for “geologic sequestration (GS)” of CO₂ in order to “reduce CO₂ emissions to the atmosphere and help mitigate climate change”.

The second phase of the rules was intended to document and quantify CCS-a in association with EOR (UIC Class II) operations. In EOR operations, CO₂ is injected at rates less than those expected for commercial storage. The injectate loosens residual oil from mineral grains in the reservoir, thereby assisting in greater oil production. Incidental to the oil production, some of the CO₂ is also produced, and some is stored. The CO₂ that is produced with the oil is recaptured, and reinjected, rather than released. The CO₂ is a purchased commodity and thus is not wasted. Thus, large amounts of CO₂ remain in place as a result of EOR operations.

Notwithstanding pending federal rules regarding reporting and management of GHGs, and a potential federal market for carbon credits, there are state incentives for CCS-a in association with EOR. These incentives (e.g.HB 469) allow a reduction in well head taxes levied by the State of Texas on oil production. This part of the rules helps oil and gas operators claim the tax reduction(s).

Another aspect of SB 1387 is a directive to the RRC to pursue state primacy. State primacy is the means by which Texas (or any other state) may gain authorisation from the federal government to administer and enforce federal rules such as those finalised for UIC Class VI. The RRC’s effort to obtain primacy is ongoing.

SB 1387 also required two reports from four state agencies, which were the RRC, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), the General Land Office, and the University of Texas Bureau of Economic Geology. These two reports had similar requirements, and thus the four agencies pooled their resources and provided a report[2] to the state legislature that integrated the needs of both. The report published was intended to provide legislative recommendations, commentary pertaining to suitability of certain geologic types of sites within Texas, and insight into the issues of liability and property rights. It was also intended as a policy document for future CCS considerations in the State of Texas.

Staff in the RRC CCS programme have attended and spoken at multiple seminars and workshops regarding history of CO₂-EOR and implementation of CCS in Texas. These have included seminars hosted by American Business Conference (San Francisco, June 2011 and Houston, November 2011), the Groundwater Protection Council (Atlanta, September 2011), the Annual Carbon Conference planned by UT-CLE (Austin, February 2012), and the annual TCEQ Environmental Fair (Austin, May 2012). The RRC was part of the impetus for the Global CCS Institute seminar in Austin that was held on 8 November 2011.

Based on comments from the regulated community, in the upcoming months, the RRC expects to receive applications for reduced well-head taxes for oil production as allowed under HB 469. These applications would document CO₂ storage in accordance with the second phase of 16 TAC Chapter 5 as described above. Based on additional comments, the regulated community has indicated no desire to undertake Class VI operations in Texas, under current conditions.

Legislatively, there was a recommendation in the above referenced report required in SB 1387 to consolidate jurisdiction of CCS operations in Texas. As currently written, jurisdiction for CCS operations in Texas is split between the RRC and the TCEQ. Jurisdiction is currently given to the RRC in geologic settings that include the production of oil, natural gas, or geothermal resources, as well as in saline aquifers above and below such reservoirs. Other settings are under the jurisdiction of TCEQ. The recommendation made in the report was to consolidate all Class VI operations under the RRC. A bill to achieve that end was filed in the legislature in the past session, but was not adopted. Preliminary indications are that such a bill will be filed in the next legislative session, which is planned for early 2013.

The RRC is working on state primacy in response to the federally promulgated rules finalised in December of 2010. This is a work in progress as described above. Because of decades of rules and established engineering practices in the regulatory purview of the RRC, line by line explanation of equivalence to federal rules (as required in the primacy process) is a complicated endeavour. Also, there is split jurisdiction of Class VI facilities, between TCEQ and the RRC, as described above. Because of split jurisdiction, joint co-ordination, two sets of rules and their reconciliation are required, which further complicates the primacy process.

Public engagement is required by state law in the drafting of rules. Proposed rules are published in the Texas Register, with a comment period of at least 30 days. Each comment must be addressed in the preamble of the rules, and in at least some cases, appropriate changes in the final rules are made to take these comments into account. This process was implemented in promulgation of CCS rules in Texas.

Public engagement in CCS permits is part of the rules promulgated under 16 TAC Chapter 5.

Key points include the following:

• Placement of copy of application for public inspection: the applicant must make a complete copy of the permit application available for the public to inspect and copy by filing a copy of the application with the County Clerk at the courthouse of each county where the storage facility is to be located, or if approved by the director, at another equivalent public office. The applicant also must provide an electronic copy of the complete application to enable the RCC to place the copy on the RCC website.
• General notice by publication: to give general notice to local governments and interested or affected persons, the applicant must publish notice of the application for an original or amended storage facility permit no later than the date the application is mailed to or filed with the director. Standardised notification forms are provided by the State of Texas. The applicant must also file proof of publication of the notice with the application.
• Individual notice: by no later than the date the application is mailed to or filed with the director, the applicant must give notice of an application for a permit to operate a CO₂ storage facility, or to amend an existing storage facility permit to: 
• each adjoining mineral interest owner, other than the applicant, of the outmost boundary of the proposed geologic storage facility; 
• each leaseholder of minerals lying above or below the proposed storage reservoir; 
• each adjoining leaseholder of minerals offsetting the outermost boundary of the proposed geologic storage facility; 
• each owner or leaseholder of any portion of the surface overlying the proposed storage reservoir and the adjoining area of the outermost boundary of the proposed geologic storage facility; 
• the clerk of the county or counties where the proposed storage facility is located; 
• the city clerk or other appropriate city official where the proposed storage facility is located within city limits; and 
• any other class of persons that the director determines should receive notice of the application. 

Hearing requirements: (1) If the Commission receives a protest regarding an application for a new permit or for an amendment of an existing permit for a geologic storage facility from a person notified pursuant to applicable rules within 30 days of the date of receipt of the application by the Oil and Gas Division, receipt of individual notice, or last publication of notice, whichever is later, then the director will notify the applicant that the director cannot administratively approve the application. Upon the written request of the applicant, the director will schedule a hearing on the application. The Commission must give notice of the hearing to all affected persons, local governments, and other persons who express, in writing, an interest in the application. After the hearing, the examiner will recommend a final action by the Commission. (2) If the Commission receives no protest regarding an application for a new permit or for the amendment of an existing permit for a geologic storage facility from a person notified pursuant to subsection (b) of this section or from any other affected person, the director may administratively approve the application.

The implementation of the EU CO₂ Storage Directive entered into force by the following means:

• The law to amend the Mining Law in order to implement the EU CO₂ Storage Directive was accepted by the first chamber of the Parliament in May 2011. It was published on 6 June 2011 in the Staatsblad (Stb 2011-381) and is in force as of 10 of September 2011. This amending law was also the implementation of OSPAR Decision 2007/2 on the storage of carbon dioxide streams in geological formations.
• The Ministerial Decree to amend several existing decrees regarding environmental impact assessments, environmental permits for large combustion engines and mining was published on 9 September 2011 in the Staatsblad (Stb. 2011-406) and also entered into force on 10 September 2011.
• The regulation to amend the Mining Regulation was published on 15 September 2011 in the Staatscourant (Stscrt 2011-16804) and entered into force on 16 September 2011.

Legislation to amend the Civil Code with regard to long-term liability for CO₂ storage is in preparation (see the second edition of the CCS Review).

All preparations for CO₂ storage projects on land have ceased since February 2011, when the cabinet decided that CO₂ storage offshore would probably be sufficient for mitigating climate change. The cabinet decided then not to support onshore CO₂ storage projects. The small scale demonstration project planned in the town of Barendrecht had already been cancelled at the beginning of November 2010.

The General Administrative Law Act (Algemene Wet Bestuursrecht) describes the general public engagement requirements for administrative decisions such as licences or spatial plans. There are differences in procedures depending on the type of decision. Other specific legislation determines which procedure will apply. Sometimes draft decisions are published for public engagement and the possibilities to protest final decisions are limited to court appeal. Sometimes there is no public engagement possible on draft decisions but there is then public engagement possible for final decisions. In cases where the national co-ordination procedure (NCP) applies publication of draft decisions with public engagement is mandatory. For a determination whether a project falls under the NCP, the type of project is important.

However, for every permit/licence/administrative decision concerning the installations or uses of installations for the part of the project falling under the NCP the minister in charge of the NCP can decide to include or exclude certain of those. That will have a consequence for the public consultation.

In terms of how these principles apply to CCS projects:

• Capture: capture installations do not fall under the NCP but in general the draft licences required (omgevingsvergunning, which literally translated means "surroundings permit" and is a combination of a building permit and environmental permit amongst other things) will in itself mandatorily go through the process of public consultation.
• Transport: if there are administrative decisions to be made, then public consultation is mandatory because of the NCP unless the minister decides not to include them in the NCP procedure.
• Storage: storage is part of the NCP. However, in general CO₂ storage licences for offshore storage have no public consultation on draft permits, but every interested party can object to a decision on the final storage permit. Onshore CO₂ storage permits always have a public consultation. In this case the NCP minister can also decide to include the storage licence in the NCP, which will mean that the draft offshore licence will also then undergo public consultation.

In general the NCP minister (for CO₂ storage, this is the Minister of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation) can decide on a case-by-case basis which licences of administrative decision will be part of the co-ordination.

Preparations for the ROAD-project (Rotterdam Opslag and Afvang Demonstratie) have continued. Recently the draft licence for the capture unit was published for public engagement in accordance with the existing rules for public engagement. Draft decisions (licences and other decisions e.g. spatial plans) for the pipeline and the storage location will follow separately. The ROAD project will store CO₂ captured in the Rotterdam area in a depleted gas field some kilometres off the coast (field P18).

In addition to the legal requirements above, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation is presently considering additional ways to engage the public, both in the context of CCS and broader energy projects, For example, the government is considering how permanent information centres could help better inform local stakeholders about projects and how local discussions on controversial projects could best be organised in the spirit of “investigate, adapt, engage”.

In August 2011, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed to exclude CO₂ streams from EPA’s hazardous waste regulations under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), if they meet certain conditions, including injection for the purpose of geologic storage (GS) into specific wells regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act. EPA concluded that the management of CO₂ streams under the proposed conditions does not present a substantial risk to human health or the environment, and will encourage the deployment of CCS technologies in a safe and environmentally protective manner while also ensuring protection of underground sources of drinking water (USDWs). This proposed rule is complementary to a recently finalised Safe Drinking Water Act rule that sets requirements for GS, including the development of a new class of injection well, termed Class VI, established under EPA’s Underground Injection Control (UIC) Program. The UIC Class VI requirements are designed to ensure that wells used for GS of CO₂ streams are appropriately sited, constructed, tested, monitored, and closed in a manner that ensures USDW protection.

EPA will continue its efforts related to the safety and effectiveness of GS, including developing technical guidance materials for the Class VI rule, continuing to evaluate risks to drinking water sources and human health and the environment, and working to address other key policy issues.

Public input and participation in GS projects has a number of benefits, including: (1) providing citizens with access to decision-making processes that may affect them; (2) educating the community about a GS project; (3) ensuring that the public receives adequate information about the proposed GS project; and (4) allowing the permitting authority and owners or operators to become aware of public viewpoints, preferences and environmental justice concerns and ensuring these concerns are considered by decision-making officials.

GS of CO₂ is a new technology that is unfamiliar to most people and maximising the public's understanding of the technology can result in more meaningful public input and constructive participation as new GS projects are proposed and developed. Early and frequent public involvement through education and information exchange is critical to the success of GS and can provide early insight into how the local community and surrounding communities perceive potential environmental, economic, or health effects associated with a specific GS project. Owners or operators can increase the likelihood of success by integrating social, economic, and cultural concerns of the community into the permit decision-making process.

The UIC Class VI final rule adopts the existing UIC public participation requirements at 40 CFR part 25 and the permitting decision procedures at 40 CFR part 124. EPA encourages owners or operators and permitting agencies to involve the public by providing them information about the Class VI permit (and any requests for a waiver of the injection depth requirements or an expansion of the areal extent of an aquifer exemption) as early in the process as possible. Under 40 CFR parts 25 and 124, permitting authorities must provide public notice of pending actions via newspaper advertisements, postings, mailings, or e-mails to interested parties; hold public hearings if requested; solicit and respond to public comment; and involve a broad range of stakeholders.

EPA expects that there will be higher levels of public interest in GS projects than for most other injection activities. The Agency believes that encouraging public participation will help permitting authorities understand public concerns about GS projects and will afford the public an opportunity to gain a clearer understanding of the nature and safety of GS projects and technologies. To address comments about stakeholder participation, EPA amended the requirements for public notice of permit actions and public comment period at § 124.10 to clarify that public notice of Class VI permitting activities must be given to state and local oil and gas regulatory agencies, state agencies regulating mineral exploration and recovery, the Director of the Public Water System Supervision programme in the state, and all agencies that have jurisdiction to oversee wells in the state in addition to the general public.

New forms of information technology can improve public participation and understanding of GS projects. EPA recognizes the importance of social media as a public outreach tool. Social media, which are primarily internet and mobile based technologies for disseminating and discussing information, can help provide accessibility and transparency to a wide audience. EPA encourages permit applicants and permitting authorities to use the internet and other forms of social media to explain potential GS projects; describe GS technologies; and post information on the latest developments related to a GS project including schedules for hearings, briefings and other opportunities for involvement.

On 1 January 2012, Victoria’s Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2010 came into force and the associated Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Regulations 2011 (Victorian Offshore Regulations) commenced. The offshore legislative framework has effect in Victoria’s state waters up to the jurisdictional boundary with the Commonwealth of Australia (Commonwealth).

The commencement of the offshore legislative framework makes Victoria the first state in Australia with a comprehensive legislative and regulatory framework that provides for CCS (GHG injection and storage) activities in both onshore and offshore areas.

The Victorian Offshore Regulations were made on 13 December 2011, following a detailed consultative process involving workshops with key stakeholders, Victorian government agencies and Australian jurisdictions, including the Commonwealth.

The Victorian Offshore Regulations are a single set of regulations which mostly mirror the range of standalone offshore petroleum and GHG storage regulations made by the Commonwealth.

Victoria has sought to mirror the Commonwealth’s offshore CCS legislative and regulatory framework as far as practicable to mitigate policy and regulatory problems associated with divergent requirements applying to operations that straddle jurisdictional boundaries.

The Victorian Offshore Regulations differ from the Commonwealth regulations in some respects to align with the Victorian-specific regulatory context. For example, the construction of offences aligns with Victorian regulatory drafting conventions and criminal law policy requirements. The limited number of more substantive differences in drafting approaches between Victoria and the Commonwealth are not significant enough so as to jeopardise the mirror nature of the Victorian regulations. Developments expected in next 6-12 months

To underpin the operation of the Victorian Offshore Regulations, Memorandums of Understanding between the Department of Primary Industries (DPI) and other state regulatory agencies will be developed to enhance administrative efficiency and co-operation between those agencies in relation to CCS activities.

Additionally, the onshore Victorian CCS legislative framework, encompassing the Greenhouse Gas Geological Sequestration Act 2008 (Onshore Act) and associated 2009 regulations, is jointly regulated by the DPI and the Victorian Environment Protection Authority (EPA). Under the Onshore Act and regulations, DPI is the primary regulator for CCS operations during the exploration and injection phase, while the EPA becomes primary regulator post-site closure during the monitoring and verification phase of a CCS operation. A Memorandum of Understanding between DPI and the EPA will likely be concluded at some stage this year.

DPI places great importance in community engagement as a means of educating communities, providing community assurance around specific CCS projects and CCS more generally.

Public engagement associated with the Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies (Otway Project) and the CarbonNet Project are well underway.

DPI’s CarbonNet Project commenced a targeted engagement and consultation programme in 2011. This programme is expanding in 2012 as the project progresses.

The Otway Project has undertaken pre-project and post-project public surveys allowing them to compare public perceptions before and after the project.

In 2012, DPI is undertaking social research to enhance existing community engagement approaches and inform the development of a community engagement strategy specific to CCS.

The social research is expected to identify how best to engage the Victorian community in CCS projects. The research will also investigate how best to manage communications and media matters relating to CCS.

Further information on the CarbonNet Project and the Otway Project can be obtained from the DPI Website (www.dpi.vic.gov.au) and The Otway Project website (www.CO₂crc.com.au).

Approval to draft a bill amending the state’s Petroleum and Geothermal Energy Resources Act 1967 to include provisions for the onshore transport and storage of GHG was received in August 2010. The bill, titled the Petroleum and Geothermal Energy Legislation Amendment Bill 2011 has reached draft 4 stage. Draft 4 is the initial consultation stage of the bill. Many of the clauses in the bill are modelled on GHG provisions in the Commonwealth’s Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006, including the approach taken for identifying storage formations, site closure and long-term liability.

A consultation draft of the bill, together with an outline of the main provisions of the legislation, was circulated to stakeholders for a five week period for comment on 8 September 2011. The exposure draft of the bill was in a mark-up format to assist consideration of the proposed amendments. Comments received during the consultation process are under consideration in order to complete drafting of the bill, which will then be circulated for final consultation.

It is anticipated that the bill will be introduced into parliament shortly.

Western Australia does not expect to include specific legislation requiring community engagement for CCS projects. However, the Environmental Protection Authority as part of its project assessment expect there to be public engagement. A stakeholder engagement plan was developed with the objective of supporting the business case for the Collie Hub project. Implementation of the stakeholder engagement plan has commenced and will continue throughout the life of the project. The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) held a workshop in February 2011 in Harvey. Following the workshop CSIRO compiled a report on the participant views towards low emission technologies and the potential for CCS in Western Australia’s South West. To ensure the community plays a critical role in the assessment and evaluation of The Collie Hub, the WA Minister for Mines and Petroleum the Hon. Norman Moore MLC, established the Lesueur Community Consultative Committee (LCCC). The first meeting of the LCCC was held on 31 August 2011 and regular meetings will be held on a quarterly basis.