Global CCS Institute urges Labor to embrace carbon capture in climate plan

⚡ AI Executive Summary

The Global CCS Institute has called on Australia's Labor Party to explicitly recognize carbon capture and storage as a key technology in its net-zero pathway, following the party's adoption of ambitious 2030 and 2035 emissions targets. The letter highlights the Moomba CCS project's successful operation and recent record issuance of carbon credits, demonstrating measurable abatement at scale. CCS is positioned as essential for decarbonizing hard-to-abate sectors like heavy industry and cement production where electrification alone cannot eliminate emissions cost-effectively. The institute argues that formal policy support for CCS would signal to industry and international partners that Australia backs a balanced technology portfolio. From a power-systems perspective, CCS integration strengthens the economic feasibility of the energy transition by enabling industrial competitiveness during grid decarbonization, while also creating demand for renewable electricity in capture and compression processes. Australia's geology and regional position make it uniquely suited to lead CCS deployment and export, potentially influencing global net-zero trajectories where the IEA projects gigatonne-scale CO₂ storage by 2050.