In the first stage of the project a number of leading experts from around the world were commissioned to write papers in which they both described how they saw the regulatory, liability, investment and public perception challenges that relate to CCS and proposed ideas for how these challenges might best be met. All 11 of these papers are available as downloads, below :
A Dialogue on Environmental Governance Arrangements for the Geological Storage of Carbon Dioxide, The Australian Greenhouse Office
A Proposal of Regulatory Framework for Carbon Dioxide Storage in Geological Formations, Semere Solomon, Beate Kristiansen, Aage Stangel, The Bellona Foundation ; Tore A. Torp, Olav Karstad, Statoil Research Center
Attributes of an Effective Regulatory Regime for CO2 Geological Storage, Iain W. Wright, BP International
Regulatory and Policy Needs for Geological Sequestration of Carbon Dioxide, Edward S. Rubin, Sean T. McCoy, Jay Apt, Carnegie Mellon University
Regulating Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage, M.A. de Figueiredo, H.J. Herzog, P.L. Joskow, K.A. Oye, and D.M. Reiner, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Attributes of an Effective Regulatory Regime for Carbon Capture & Storage, George Peridas, Natural Resources Defense Council
Carbon Capture and Storage : Risk Governance and Rent seeking, Carlo C. Jaeger, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
An International Regulatory Framework for Risk Governance of CO2 Capture and Storage, Shalini Vajjhala, Resources For the Future ; Jenny Gode, Swedish Environmental Research Institute ; Asbjorn Torvanger, Center for International Climate & Environment Research
Regulation for CCS beneath the UK Offshore and Onshore, Stuart Haszeldine, University of Edinburgh
Regulation of Carbon Sequestration : Organization and Process, David Victor, Stanford University
Environmental Impairment Liability Insurance for Geological Carbon Sequestration Projects, Christina Ulardic, SwissRe
All of the authors were invited to participate in an expert workshop held at the headquarters of Resources for the Future in Washington DC on 15 and 16 March 2007. The workshop was also attended by a number of other experts from both the corporate sector (utility companies ; insurers) and from regulators. The meeting’s objectives were to identify common and divergent thoughts from the 11 papers and to develop a number of the policy recommendations that would be included in the project’s main, concluding, paper.
Key questions addressed by the workshop included :
Are existing regulations sufficient to allow the establishment of a sufficient number of demonstration sites whose performance could be monitored in order to inform regulation that would pertain when the technology enters its commercial phase ?
Given the extremely high level of uncertainty, with almost no specific scientific knowledge available at the present time, how can one design a process for developing regulation which optimises risk management and allows the thorough assessment of safety and commercial performance over time ?
What data should be produced from risk assessments ?
What are the long-term liability and insurance issues and who is responsible for them ?
How can regulatory regimes, most of which will be developed at the level of national governments, be sufficiently cohesive to assure common operational and safety standards and to ensure that the value of stored CO2 supports the extremely high investment costs required.
The report of the workshop is available for download. Please click here to download the report.