The UK and Norway today jointly commissioned a study to assess the North Sea’s potential for storing European carbon dioxide emissions in space under the sea bed.

Lord Hunt, the UK’s Minister of State for Energy and Climate Change, and the Norwegian Minister Terje Riis-Johansen announced the study at the conference on Climate Change and Technology in Bergen, Norway.

The study will look at how quickly the base of the North Sea could be needed for carbon dioxide storage and what the UK, Norway and other countries must do to get it ready in time.

“Today’s agreement reaffirms the UK’s leadership in tackling the emissions from fossil fuel power generation,” said Lord Hunt. “Carbon capture and storage (CCS) has the potential to reduce emissions from coal-fired power stations by around 90 per cent. The strength of the UK’s offshore industries means we are well-placed to store that carbon dioxide under the North Sea.”

He continued, “The benefits of CCS are not only environmental. There are clear business and job opportunities to be found in green energy technology. This study will help assist the governments in Europe to work together to store carbon dioxide safely under the North Sea and to plan the implementation of CCS.”

The aim of the study will be to build a profile for the whole of the North Sea, assessing each country’s storage potential, and to project likely volumes and locations of CO2 flows against a rising price of carbon. This will involve identifying network issues and proposing methods for managing CO2 flows across borders.

The study will also consider how the offshore carbon dioxide storage business might develop.

• Are hopes for a low-carbon economy fading?
• Construction starts on 1st industrial-scale CCS plant in US
• Carbon capture projects up 21% in 2010
• US: Mass CO2 capture in 10 years
• US: Kill CO2 by burying it
• Carbon-cutting tech: Key is to distinguish ‘possible’ from ‘viable’
• Iceland to test storing carbon dioxide in mineral form
• Carbon capture and storage: False hope or our only hope?
• Carbon capture ‘not a conspiracy against renewables’
• Carbon storage: Works in a lab, but what about real life?