O 100743Z SEP 08
FM AMEMBASSY CANBERRA
TO SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0116
INFO AMCONSUL MELBOURNE 
AMCONSUL PERTH 
AMCONSUL SYDNEY 
THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON DC
DEPT OF ENERGY WASHINGTON DC

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.