Strategic partnerships, encouraging collaboration

Since its inception, the Institute is collaborating with, or has provided support to, a number of global organisations with established expertise to address barriers facing CCS. These partnerships have allowed the Institute to create immediate impact in its formative stages, and are part of a process to establish a more coordinated approach amongst the international community to the development and adoption of CCS worldwide.

As the Institute builds its internal capacity, it also aims to gain value from effective collaboration with others that have a similar set of objectives. It therefore utilises partnerships with other international bodies or regional experts working to help deliver on its objectives.

The Strategic Partners include:

Asian Development Bank (ADB)

The Institute provided AU$21.5 million to the ADB to establish a CCS Fund aimed at financing a range of project development activities in the Asia and Pacific region, with a focus on China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam.

The ADB is an international development finance institution with a mission to help its developing member countries reduce poverty and improve the quality of life. The ADB has well developed relationships with developing countries in the Asia Pacific Region and has expertise in the legal,economic and financial disciplines.

The ADB work program includes:

project specific studies;
policy and financial studies; capacity development; and
storage investigations and studies.

Bellona Foundation

The Institute committed approximately AU$1.3 million to support the Bellona Foundation to deliver the Bellona Environmental CCS Team work program (BEST).

The Bellona Foundation is an international environmental NGO based in Norway. Bellona has become a recognised technology and solution-oriented organisation with offices in Oslo, Brussels, Washington DC, St Petersburg and Murmansk. The Bellona Foundation is a strong advocate of CCS having driven outcomes supporting CCS within the European Commission.

The BEST work program will include:

delivery of a comprehensive CCS advocacy program in selected countries;
roadmaps for CCS deployment in selected countries;
targeted research to address CCS knowledge gaps; and
facilitation of CCS deployment in Norway through stakeholder interaction.

Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF)

The Institute provided AU$1.2 million to support a collaborative program with the CSLF to deliver capacity building activities around the world.

The CSLF is a ministerial-level international climate change initiative that is focused on collaborative efforts to develop improved cost effective technologies for the separation and capture of carbon dioxide for its transport and long-term safe storage.

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial
Research Organisation (CSIRO)

The Institute committed AU$3.9 million to support the CSIRO to deliver a coordinated global

scientific research program aimed at better informing its Members on the status of CCS public awareness and approaches, materials and efforts to better engage with impacted communities.Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)

The CSIRO is Australia’s national science and industrial research agency and one of the largest and most diverse research agencies in the world.

The CSIRO work program includes the following activities:

utilising an established network of social research specialists to inform community engagement by both projects and governments, and to harness the wealth of information and expertise in this discipline;
developing case studies and tools to provide proponents with a sophisticated insight and analysis into their social landscapes; and
assisting projects to build healthy relationships with communities.

Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies (CO2CRC)

The Institute will be providing the CO2CRC with AU$250 000 per annum for three years to support activities to aid the joint objective of enabling early commercial deployment of carbon capture and storage technology.

CO2CRC is one of the world's leading collaborative research organisations focused on CCS. The organisation is a joint venture comprising participants from Australian and global industry, universities and other research bodies from Australia and New Zealand, and Australian Commonwealth, State and international government agencies.

Activities can include but are not limited to the following:

international CCS capacity building workshops;
training programs and seminars;
a CCS school in Australia with ten places funded per annum by Global CCS Institute Scholarships;
provision of technical advice on CCS; and
input to the Institute’s Knowledge Platform.

International Energy Agency (IEA)

The Institute provided approximately AU$15.77 million to the IEA to fund the establishment of a dedicated CCS unit aimed at utilising expertise on energy issues and markets to deconstruct the barriers to project deployment.

The IEA is an intergovernmental organisation which acts as energy policy advisor to 28 member countries in their effort to ensure reliable, affordable and clean energy for their citizens.

The IEA work program includes the following activities:

undertaking technological and economic analysis;
commencing regulatory and policy analysis and issuing recommendations;
providing tools to achieve public engagement and acceptance; and
active capacity building and outreach.

IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme (IEAGHG)

The Institute has committed AU$2.5 million to the IEAGHG to undertake research activities to help progress the G8 CCS recommendations.

The IEAGHG is an international collaborative research program established under the International Energy Agency (IEA) to evaluate technologies that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions derived from the use of fossil fuels.

The IEAGHG work program includes:

global storage resource gap analysis;
studies to assess the impacts of impurities on geological storage sites;
secretariat support for the IEAGHG Social Research Network; and
sponsorship of the IEAGHG’s Summer School, student mentoring program and GHGT conferences.

International Energy Forum (IEF)

The IEF and the Institute jointly established a series of symposia on CCS designed to accelerate commercial deployment of CCS, particularly in oil and gas producing and consuming countries.

The IEF is the world’s largest gathering of Energy Ministers. Through the forum and its associated events, IEF Ministers, their officials, energy industry executives, and other experts engage in a dialogue of increasing importance to global energy security.

The Climate Group

The Institute provided AU$2 million to The Climate Group to explore financing options for large-scale and first-of-a-kind CCS projects, and the role of public policy in improving confidence to financiers.

The Climate Group is a key NGO working to support government and business transition to a low-carbon economy future. The Institute is working with The Climate Group to finalise a work program for this partnership.

The Energy Institute (EI)

The Energy Institute is the professional body for the energy industry, delivering good practice and professionalism across the depth and breadth of the sector.

To maximise the reach of the EI’s leading collaborative industry programs on technical guidance and hazard analysis, the Institute and the EI have established a collaborative knowledge partnership to provide technical and operational guidance on key current health, safety, environmental and technical issues relevant to CCS. The knowledge partnership supports the development and dissemination of knowledge to ensure that reliable skills and industry standards are established, and that confidence is built in a safe, secure and sustainable energy system.

Through the knowledge partnership, the Institute and the EI will support industry-based knowledge creation and sharing around technical issues such as:

hazard analysis for CO₂ capture and transport facilities;
well drilling and completions;
failure rate modelling and analysis for capture facilities;
pipeline integrity and explosive decompression modelling; and
CO₂ dispersion modelling and testing.

United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO)

The Institute provided approximately AU$300,000 to UNIDO to develop a Global Technology Roadmap for CCS in Industry. The Roadmap will focus on five industrial sectors which CCS can be applied to: high purity CO₂ sources, cement, iron and steel, refineries and biomass-based CO₂ sources.

UNIDO is a specialised agency of the United Nations. Its mandate is to promote and accelerate sustainable industrial development in developing countries and economies in transition, and work towards improving living conditions in the world’s poorest countries by drawing on its combined global resources and expertise.

The Clinton Foundation

The Institute provided AU$10 million to the Clinton Foundation to support the work being conducted through the Clinton Climate Initiative to accelerate key ‘early mover’ CCS projects around the world.

Established by former US President Clinton in 2001 the Clinton Foundation works to strengthen the capacity of governments and individuals to alleviate poverty, improve global health, strengthen economies, and protect the environment.

The Clinton Foundation work program includes:

collaboration with ‘Early Mover’ CCS projects in the Netherlands and Australia to help
overcome specific barriers;
identification of potential future CCS projects and work to accelerate the development of these; and
sharing ‘best practice’ and case studies from Early Mover projects that have been engaged.

World Bank

The Institute provided AU$2.4 million to the World Bank’s CCS Trust Fund to provide assistance to the deployment of CCS in developing countries.

The World Bank is a vital source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world, seeking to alleviate poverty and enable people to help themselves and their environment by providing resources, sharing knowledge, building capacity and forging partnerships in the public and private sectors.

The Trust Fund’s main objectives are to:

support strengthening capacity and knowledge sharing, to create opportunities for countries to explore their CCS potential, access carbon markets and realise benefits of domestic CCS technology development; and
facilitate inclusion of CCS options into low-carbon growth strategies and policies developed by national institutions and supported by bank interventions.

For more information on the achievements and outcomes of the Strategic Partnerships, please see from page 24 of the Global CCS Institute Annual Review 2010

Global CCS Institute