AUSTRALIAN CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE INITIATIVE

C O N F I D E N T I A L CANBERRA 000898


NOFORN

STATE FOR G STAFF ROCHBERG, WHITE HOUSE FOR NSC SHRIER, CEQ
SCHULTZ

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/11/2018
TAGS: SENV ENRG KGHG PREL AS
SUBJECT: AUSTRALIAN CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE INITIATIVE

REF: ATKINSON-COLLECTIVE EMAIL 9/5/2008


Classified By: Econ Counselor Edgard Kagan, Reasons 1.4(b)(d)


1. (C/NF) Summary: Australian officials tasked with
coordinating their proposed Global Carbon Capture and Storage
Initiative (GCCSI) with international partners this week
reiterated PM Rudd's strong interest in moving this forward,
with a public rollout in the coming weeks. Australia will
work to address concerns over interaction with ongoing
efforts, but needs to roll out this program soon and in a
manner that gives Australia a leadership role in developing
this technology. Though aware of discussions in Washington,
they may not be aware of the most recent exchanges. End
Summary.


2. (C/NF) Following up discussions last week with Department
of Resources, Energy and Tourism General Manager John
Hartwell (ref email),we spoke with Rhondda Dickson, First
Assistant Secretary for Industry, Infrastructure and
Environment, at the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet,
on September 9. Jackson reiterated Prime Minister Rudd's
interest in having Australia take a leading role
internationally on carbon capture and storage through its
proposed Global CCS Initiative. She noted that this was not
seen as simply a domestic issue, and that the government was
prepared to put substantial funding into supporting this
effort. Australia has a pragmatic view of this effort, and
is committed to working with the U.S. to make it a success,
but intends to announce the project by the end of the month.
Dickson confirmed that Hartwell has been given the lead on
coordinating this effort with international partners, but
that the PM's office was keeping a close eye on developments.


3. (C/NF) Econoff subsequently spoke by phone with Margaret
Sewell, General Manager for CCS at DRET, on September 10.
Sewell, who is traveling in Taiwan, echoed Dickson's focus on
Australian "pragmatism" in considering how this initiative
should be bounded. She reiterated Australian desire to avoid
duplication of effort or conflict with the Carbon
Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF) and the Asia-Pacific
Partnership. In discussing the question of how Australia
could act to support the G8 goal of having in place 20
commercial scale projects by 2020, Sewell said that Australia
was trying to avoid being "prescriptive" in discussing the
size and scale of what might constitute a project that could
fall under their proposed initiative. She recognized that
this would require some "re-badging" of either existing or
ongoing projects, and that Australia would be willing to join
in funding some ongoing or planned projects that met their
requirements as a result. (Note: GOA committed A$500 million
to the National Clean Coal Initiative in its 2008-2009
budget. Of that A$295 million is currently allocated to
projects in Australia, including two CCS plants in New South
Wales and Victoria.)


4. (C/NF) Most of the projected funding for this initiative
would be spent in Australia, either in the form of the
proposed Research and Development center or for assistance to
Australian CCS projects meeting the "commercial scale"
requirement, Sewell said. However, the government is already
actively considering funding part of a CCS project in China,
and is looking at Indonesia as a possible destination for
some of its money. Sewell said one goal of the GCCSI would
Qsome of its money. Sewell said one goal of the GCCSI would
be to work with partners to coordinate ongoing efforts in
developing countries on CCS, almost all of which are at the
pilot project scale, and see if some of them can be scaled up
to meet the commercial scale requirement. Sewell said
feedback from India had been very lukewarm on this, as the
Indians did not seem to have favorable geology for
large-scale storage sites. This led to another goal for the
GCCSI, which is to "reinvigorate" CCS storage site joint
mapping efforts. Those efforts, which have taken place
largely under the aegis of the CSLF by a small number of
experts, could be moved ahead under the GCCSI. Sewell said
the thinking in Canberra was to use the resources of the
proposed R&D center to identify the 20 largest "emissions"
zones in the world (Eastern China, Indonesia, etc.) and then
pool efforts to map out large-scale storage possibilities
near those regions.


5. (C/NF) Sewell said that discussions with U.S. officials
had indicated that there could be interest in developing
linkages between the proposed R&D Center and U.S. research
institutions. She said Australia would of course welcome such
cooperation, if possible. She said there had been some
background discussion of whether the GCCSI could be
considered as a joint U.S.-Australian initiative. If that
was a possibility, Sewell said, the GOA would "certainly
consider this in detail," as U.S. support would be critical
for the success of the GCCSI. However, any move to a joint
project would have to satisfy the PM's policy reasons for
pushing the initiative.


6. (C/NF) Comment: Dickson and Sewell clearly understand that
the United States has concerns about the details of the GCCSI
and how it interacts with existing efforts. However, they
still appear to lack detailed explanations of the scope of
those concerns. The sooner a direct discussion on these
specific concerns can take place, the more likely we are to
be able to mold this proposal into one that complements our
own efforts. Sewell has been traveling for over a week and
may not be aware of the latest discussions in Washington.
Noting that there was interest in Washington in a direct
conference call with Australian counterparts, she said that
it would be very difficult to arrange before the week of
September 15 due to key officials being on the road. End
Comment.