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Australia is gearing up to import greenhouse gases from some of Asia’s biggest polluters as the Albanese government introduces new laws that will, for the first time, allow international emissions to be buried in carbon capture and storage projects in local waters.
Japan and Korea, backed by the gas industry and International Energy Australia, have been lobbying the government to allow shipments of carbon pollution and other marine waste to bypass restrictions imposed in 1972 under the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter, known as the London Protocol.
Santos is developing a carbon capture and storage project at the Bayu-Undan gas field in the Timor Sea.
Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek lodged in parliament last week a bill to enable carbon pollution to be imported to Australia, which is expected to be voted into law with support from the Opposition.
Plibersek said her bill “implements Australia’s international obligations under the London Protocol”.
The London Protocol bans the export of carbon pollution to bury it under the sea, but by reforming its local laws, Australia could join a group of countries – including Korea, UK, Norway and Iran – that have adopted the “provisional application” of rule changes to enable international export and import of carbon pollution.
The bill to allow carbon pollution imports comes as Australia struggles to fulfil its 2019 declaration that it would ban hard waste exports and Plibersek has issued a temporary exemption for some household plastics.
Carbon pollution importation will be controversial as the Greens oppose carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology and environment groups argue it prolongs the life of fossil fuels and delays the deployment of clean energy sources.
The Global CCS Institute issued a report last year that found Australia could be an “anchor nation” for international trade of carbon pollution in the Southern Hemisphere, with strong interest in exports from countries with poor geology for carbon sequestration such as Japan, Korea and the Philippines.
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Emissions from gas and coal plants, as well as factories, could be pumped into a ship or