By PHILIP HOPKINS
The Labor Party is backsliding on the need for carbon capture and storage, threatening the future of the technology that is key to the Latrobe Valley and Gippsland cutting greenhouse gases from local energy and industry.
A comparison by the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) of Labor’s 2026 draft national platform and the 2023 national platform has shown a dramatic weakening in government financial support for CCS in the party.
The comparison identifies every material change affecting the mining, resources, gas, critical minerals, and uranium industries based on a full-text comparison of both documents.
The 2023 policy recognised that carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) “may provide opportunities to reduce carbon pollution in hard-to-abate industries such as cement” and committed to “clear legal and regulatory frameworks”.
The 2026 document deleted reference to CCS entirely.
“The 2026 draft contains zero references to carbon capture in any form. Nothing is prohibited but projects whose emissions pathway or approvals case relies on CCS lose a useful platform-level policy anchor,” the MCA says in its analysis.
The draft document was due to be debated at the Labor national conference over the weekend.
The Melbourne-based CO2CRC, which has been operating since 2003, receives federal funding. It is a world leader in carbon capture, utilisation and storage research, and owns and operates the Otway International Test Centre in south-west Victoria.
The CRC’s work is integral into the research to make CCS a viable tool for the Latrobe Valley to sequester industry’s greenhouse gas emissions in empty oil and gas reservoirs in Bass Strait.
Also potentially affected is CarbonNet, which receives federal and state funding. It aims to build a pipeline from the Valley through South Gippsland to transport industry’s emissions to the empty reservoirs in Bass Strait.
The chief executive of the Minerals Council, Tania Constable, said the conference was an opportunity for delegates to stand up for regional industries like mining and agriculture by opposing damaging proposals to cap or cut the fuel tax credit and water down support for reliable baseload energy and new energy sources.
“When Australian businesses and households need access to all sources of energy – renewables, gas, coal and nuclear – and technologies like CCUS to reduce emissions, keep the cost of living down and improve reliability – closing the door on coal, nuclear, and CCUS doesn’t make sense,” she said.
The chief executive of the CO2CRC, Matthias Raab, said there appeared to be an active turnback from CCS in the Labor Party.
“That is an area we need to watch. Australia is a leader in CCS technology development and a pragmatic approach to reducing emissions. It (CCS) is a key way for industry to decarbonise,” he said.
“The (Labor) policy recognises the role of gas as a backup technology. There will be no safe gas realisation without full CCS. It will hurt the economy if the government turns its back on CCS and it will compromise our ability to reach clean energy goals under the Paris agreement.”
Dr Raab said abandoning CCS would damage support from trade partners – Japan, India, South Korea and South-East Asia.
“Australia must not give away its position on CCS,” he said.
The Melbourne researcher recently signed a memorandum of understanding with India’s Centre for CCS excellence that acknowledged Australia’s leadership in CCS R&D and supported collaboration between the two countries.
Dr Raab said India had written CCS into its national development plan to 2047 and was moving quickly, with $3.7 billion in funding for its initial five-year plan.
“We would not be able to support them and our potential would be killed by giving away our position on CCS,” he said.
“Our work receives support from global industry, universities and government bodies – bringing together the world’s best scientists, engineers and industry leaders to deliver research, products and services to advance the implementation of CCUS technologies.”
Dr Raab said CCUS is recognised by the UN’s International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) as critical to achieving net zero emissions goals by 2050.”
“It was the Rudd Labor government who accelerated Australia’s investment in CCUS,” he said, but the Albanese government was in danger of casting that aside.
The federal Minister for Resources, Madeleine King, told a CCS conference in Melbourne in February that the federal government was giving CCS policy support through regulatory reform and the future gas strategy, acknowledging “that it’s absolutely 100 per cent required to reach net zero along with every other tool”.
“CCS is not a silver bullet but it’s a really important part of a suite of technologies that will be required. But the oil and gas industry is an industry that knows the geology, the technology we’re talking about better than anyone else,” she said.
“So, they will be the ones that, indeed, are making these projects happen, and as they are required and called under the safeguard mechanism. It’s only natural that they put their private investment into that industry as opposed to government pitching in to that when we have a constrained budget, clearly.”
Under the safeguard mechanism, Australia’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters must cut their emissions annually be five per cent.
Ms King emphasised that gas was essential to get to net zero.
“But gas is a fossil fuel, and while it provides essential fuel for power and industry, it produces CO2, which is contributing to dangerous climate change. So, in order to use gas, we need carbon capture and storage,” she said.
Under the CO2CRC’s recently finalised future program 2026-2035, the researcher is seeking a Commonwealth commitment of $120 million over 10 years. This comprises $100 million for core applied research and a further $20 million to continue to operate the Otway international test centre, a key anchor of the 10-year program.
This commitment would anchor a $240 million public-private program combining Commonwealth investment, industry contributions, research partner support, CO2CRC cash contribution and targeted project-specific
