Australia’s Emissions Reduction Fund will soon incorporate carbon capture and storage projects. The design and development of the CCS ERF method lacks integrity and independence.

The proposed method will allow industry to sidestep regulation, enable new gas and oil projects to exist where they otherwise would not have, and result in more emissions being emitted than will be stored.

Key concerns around both the technical veracity of method and the integrity of its development include:

• Regulatory capture by the oil and gas industry
• Net increase in emissions by CCS for oil and gas projects
• Inadequate risk of reversal buffer
• Lack of long-term monitoring requirements for CCS sites
• Undermining of regulation and socialising the public cost of CCS