Twenty six years ago, on this day, July 1st, 1999, Australian fans of carbon capture move forward…
GEODISC commenced on July 1, 1999 after extensive consultation with industry regarding the issues, priorities, and available data. Wherever possible international research and development experience is being applied and modified to suit the conditions that prevail in Australia.
(see here)
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 368ppm. As of 2025, when this post was published, it is 430ppm. This matters because the more carbon dioxide in the air, the more heat gets trapped. The more heat, the more extreme weather events. You can make it more complicated than that if you want, but really, it’s not. Fwiw, I have a tattoo of the Keeling Curve on my left forearm.
The broader context was that carbon capture and storage had been “bubbling under” since the late 1970s, with pilot studies here and there. With the (likely) coming into effect of the Kyoto Protocol, which would force rich nations to actually reduce their emissions, CCS was grabbed out of the garbage can/filing cabinet and had some more money thrown at it…
The specific context was
The Australian government under Liberal John Howard had shown unremitting hostility to climate action, and had extorted a very very generous deal at the Kyoto Conference in December 1997. But if Uncle Sam signed up, they might be forced to, so, good to have some pretend technologies on hand perhaps? I don’t actually know if this all got as far as Howard’s desk – seems rather unlikely, tbh – or was just being done as part of the normal operations of science and technology funding. Nor do I care that much, tbh.
What I think we can learn from this
The CCS bandwagon has been trundling along for a very very long time.
What happened nextAs of a bit later (December 2002) the PMSEIC (Prime Minister’s Science and IndustryCouncil) made some positive noises about CCS, and then it was off to the races…