Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum
A Global Response to the Challenge of Climate Change
The international Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF) is a voluntary climate initiative of developed and developing nations that account for about 75 percent of all manmade carbon dioxide emissions.
Formed in 2003, CSLF marshals intellectual, technical and financial resources from all parts of the world to support the long-term goal of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change - the stabilization of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations in this century. Members are dedicated to collaboration and information sharing in developing, proving safe, demonstrating and fostering the worldwide deployment of multiple technologies for the capture and long-term geologic storage of carbon dioxide at low costs; and to establishing a companion foundation of legislative, regulatory, administrative, and institutional practices that will ensure safe, verifiable storage for as long as millennia.
CSLF
members engage in cooperative technology development aimed at enabling the early reduction and steady elimination of the carbon dioxide which constitutes more than 60 percent of such emissions - the product of electric generation and other heavy industrial activity.
In 2005, the Forum and the technologies it seeks to develop were identified by international bodies as pivotal in dealing with greenhouse gases and their ultimate stabilization. In July 2005, the G-8 Summit endorsed CSLF in its Gleneagles Plan of Action on Climate Change, Clean Energy and Sustainable Development, and identified it as a medium of cooperation and collaboration with key developing countries in dealing with greenhouse gases.
Similar designations were also made in bilateral activities that include the joint statement of the U.S.-European Union Summit on Energy Security, Energy Efficiency, Renewables and Economic Development, and the Mainz Declaration of Germany and the United States on Cleaner and More Efficient Energy, Development and Climate Change.
In 2006 and 2007, the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the CSLF held a series of three workshops for invited experts from around the world on the topic of near-term opportunities for carbon capture and storage (CCS). Resulting recommendations from these workshops were formally adopted by the CSLF and were sent forward to G8 leaders. A report summarizing these results can be found on the CSLF web site.
Geologic storage at great depth is possible in depleted and declining oil fields, which can enhance near-term supply by boosting recovery and also increase reserves by making more petroleum recoverable in: natural gas fields; unmineable coal seams, which may add to natural gas supply by displacing methane for recovery and use; saline reservoirs which underlie much of the world; and other significant geologic formations such as basalt.
Preliminary findings indicate the world's potential storage capacity is sufficient to hold all emissions for several centuries and that there is a good match between large-scale carbon dioxide sources and storage formations. In September 2005, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published its Special Report on Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage which found that technology can capture up to 90 percent of carbon dioxide in large-scale applications; and storage can account for up to 55 percent of the emissions reductions needed to achieve atmospheric stabilization.
Many CSLF recognized projects are meant to identify and further quantify the potential of storage sites. At present, there are 20 projects that have received CSLF recognition. Three of the 20 recognized CSLF projects have been completed, the China Coalbed Methane Technology/CO2 Sequestration Project, the CO2STORE Project, and the CASTOR Project. Further information on these projects can be found on the CSLF web site.
The recognized projects include the CASTOR Project, whose ultimate objective includes storage of up to 30 percent of Europe's industrial emissions; and the CO2Sink demonstration near Berlin, whose objectives include assessing the potential of a reservoir type that underlies much of Europe.
New activities include the first projects in developing nations - two in China and one in India. One project in China is quantifying a range of storage capacity in a variety of geologic formations while the other examined the potential for storage in unmineable coal seams. The activity in India is focusing on the storage potential of basalt formations, which underlie much of the sub-continent. An early assessment of basalt in the United States suggested the potential to take all emissions for hundreds of years.
The CSLF was organized as a technical working group to develop technology and processes for dealing with greenhouse gases independent of other climate-change activity. It acknowledges the International Energy Agency's finding that the world will have to rely on fossil energy for economic growth and stability during the indefinite period required to pass from the present to a point in the future where low- and no-carbon energy sources can meet most requirements. The challenge is to reduce emissions while fossil-energy use rises.
The Forum involves the world's major users and producers of fossil energy in collaborative, constructive activity on the main greenhouse gas. Members represent the world's largest blocs of economic activity, including the North America Free Trade Area, the European Union and the leading economies of Asia.
Members are: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Denmark, the European Commission, France, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Recent Meetings
The CSLF Policy and Technical Groups met most recently in April 2008 in Cape Town, South Africa. Highlights of the meeting included:
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Agreement on appropriate initiatives and projects, which would form an overarching strategy for removing the barriers of CCS.
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Agreement on an updated roadmap for bridging the gap for affordable technology so as to obtain substantial progress in both emerging and industrialized economies to reflect the latest market realities.
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Agreement on creating successful pathways for Capacity Building as the vehicle for the transfer of technologies, knowledge, and experience about CCS to engineers, scientists, and policy makers in emerging economies.
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A resolution to increase the role of stakeholders in implementing the policy priorities, and recognition that stakeholders' expertise is the key to assisting in removing the barriers to CCS deployment as they are ultimately responsible for deploying the CCS technologies.
Recent and Upcoming Meetings
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CSLF Projects Interaction and Review Team (PIRT) meeting will be held September 2008 in Canberra, Australia.
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The CSLF Capacity Building Task Force will hold two additional workshops, one in Salvador, Brazil in September 2008 and the other in Washington, DC in November 2008.
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A meeting of the CSLF Technical Group will be held in Washington, DC in November 2008.
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A CSLF Financial Task Force meeting will be held in New Delhi, India.
For more information on upcoming meetings and events, please visit the CSLF web site.
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