Carbon Loop #020
A newsletter by the CCUSNA dedicated to highlighting the Australian carbon capture, utilisation and storage industry.
Clean Energy Regulator’s quiet endorsement ..
The Clean Energy Regulator released its 2024-25 Safeguard Mechanism Data Insights paper in late April. It summarises big emitters’ performance in the second year of the Safeguard Regime, and contains a quiet but unusually positive endorsement of CCS from a regulator with every incentive to stay neutral.
Headline numbers from the second year:
208 covered facilities, down from 219 in 2023-24
132.8 Mt CO2-e covered emissions (-2.3% YoY); 120.3 Mt CO2-e net emissions (-5.5% YoY)
13.7 Mt of total excess across 141 facilities, up 48.8% on 2023-24
13.4 million units surrendered: 10.8M ACCUs and 2.6M SMCs
Twenty-three facilities surrendered ACCUs at 30% or more of their baseline, citing “low availability of affordable decarbonisation technologies” per the report.
Oil and gas sector recorded the largest covered emissions reduction of any sector, with CER attributing roughly half of that to lower facility-level emissions intensities and naming Moomba as a big winner.
The CER’s CCS endorsement was buried in the back:
While the scale and performance of CCS projects vary, the technology has potential to achieve large-volume abatement when geological conditions, capture feasibility and supporting infrastructure align.
Not quite Hugh Jackman wearing R.M. Williams, but we’ll take what we can get.
2024-25 Safeguard Mechanism Data Insights
🌏 Global CCUS momentum ..
🇦🇺 Australia & Asia-Pacific
🏭 Petronas steps up offshore carbon capture in Malaysia -- Upstream Online reports Petronas accelerating its offshore CCS programme in Malaysian waters. Read more
🗺️ CO2CRC Australian Geological Storage Projects Infographic (Feb 2026) -- CO2CRC’s updated infographic mapping Australia’s geological storage projects. A useful single-page reference. Read more
🌏 BHP CCUS hub study identifies five Asia-Pacific hub sites -- BHP’s CCUS hub study has identified five potential Asia-Pacific hub sites and welcomed new consortium partners. Read more
👷 Building a workforce for novel CDR technologies in Australia -- UTS case study examining how to build the talent pipeline needed for Australia’s emerging novel carbon dioxide removal industry. Read more
🇪🇺 Europe
💶 EU greenlights €260M top-up for Belgium’s Kairos@C capture project -- The European Commission has approved €260M of Flemish-region state aid for Kairos@C, Air Liquide and BASF’s carbon capture project at their Antwerp plants. The new money tops up the €365M Innovation Fund grant Kairos@C secured in 2020, after cost overruns pushed the original budget out of reach. About 20 Mt of CO2 avoided over 15 years if it lands. Read more
🇧🇪 Belgian carbon pipeline agreement faces civil society scrutiny -- In a sign that Belgium is making real CCUS progress and no-one’s happy about it, civil society groups are pushing back against the Belgium-Norway pipeline agreement, which would route captured Belgian CO2 through the Fluxys c-grid Antwerp network and onto Norwegian North Sea storage. Read more
🚛 UK launches pilot to advance CO2 transport beyond pipelines -- The UK has launched a pilot to develop non-pipeline CO2 transport (rail, road, ship) for CCUS clusters. Read more
⚖️ Non-pipeline transport of CO2 — a new focus for CCUS policy -- Burges Salmon examines the legal and policy implications of the UK’s pivot to non-pipeline CO2 transport modes. Read more
📜 UK government publishes CCUS East Coast Cluster NPT Pathfinder selection process -- The UK has formalised the selection process for non-pipeline transport pathfinder projects under the East Coast Cluster CCUS programme. Read more
🤝 Saipem and Capsol partner on large-scale carbon capture deployment -- Italian engineering major Saipem and Norwegian capture-tech firm Capsol have announced a partnership to scale capture deployment. Read more
🌐 Global industry & tech
🌳 Biomass carbon as a durable climate solution -- Carbon Herald makes the case for biomass-derived carbon as a durable climate pathway. Read more
🪵 Wood-based BECCS faces scrutiny over long-term climate impact -- Carbon Herald examines criticisms of wood-based BECCS, including questions about additionality and decadal-scale carbon accounting. Read more
💼 Svante and MLTC sign BECCS-CDR deal with Microsoft -- Svante, MLTC and Microsoft announce a BECCS-based carbon dioxide removal partnership, adding to Microsoft’s growing CDR purchase portfolio. Read more
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