Australia approves seabed site where a Japanese company will store carbon pollution

Australia has designated a seabed storage site near its northern coast where a Japanese company plans to store massive amounts of carbon pollution using a technology that has divided climate scientists.

Approval of the site to store up to 443 million metric tons (488 million tons) of carbon dioxide has become part of the global debate over carbon capture and storage: Proponents say the project will play an important role in reducing emissions from hard-to-clean-up industries like steel production and shipping. Critics say it will harm critical habitats and endangered wildlife while promoting a technology that prolongs the use of heavily polluting fossil fuels.

Carbon capture and storage, or CCS, is a three-step process that captures, transports and stores CO2, which contributes to climate change when released in the atmosphere.

Some governments and fossil fuel giants including Exxon Mobil and Shell promote the strategy as a climate solution that buys time for countries and industries to transition to cleaner energy.

While the International Energy Agency considers carbon capture, utilization and storage a tool for curbing climate change, the agency’s net-zero emissions scenario forecasts it will contribute less than 5% of emission reductions by 2050.

Detractors say it will slow progress of already off-track global efforts to curb emissions and allow power plants and industrial facilities to continue burning fossil fuels under the promise of capturing the exhaust later.

CCS projects are moving ahead: The United States has several in operation and the European Union’s first offshore facility opened in September.

Australia's project would be led by Japanese energy company Inpex, which is conducting environmental impact assessments and must obtain other government licenses before a final decision is made and CO2 injection starts.

The project would start in Darwin, the Northern Territory capital city on the Timor Sea, and would extend 260 kilometers (162 miles) offshore, injecting CO2 into a deep saline aquifer called West Peron.

Inpex says the primary customer would be the nearby Ichthys liquefied natural gas facility, which is majority-owned by Inpex and which exports a majority of its gas to Japan.

Other companies in the future could store their CO2 at the site, which can permanently store up to 443 million metric tons (488 million tons) of CO2 over 35 years, according to Inpex.

Australian Resources Minister Madeleine King said the designation of the site was an important step and demonstrated the government's support for technologies that help reduce emissions.

“Carbon capture and storage will play an important role in reducing emissions from hard-to-abate industries, supporting Australia’s transition to net zero,” King said in a statement.

King and Australia's Department of Industry, Science and Resources did not respond to an email from AP seeking further comment.

Environmental groups are concerned about the impact the project would have on marine, coastal and terrestrial ecosystems. The area overlaps with habitats for multiple threatened and migratory species, including dugongs, turtles and seabirds.

Construction of the project will be a major disturbance these ecosystems, said Chelsea Deng, a campaigner at the Australian Marine Conservation Society.

“A lot of it involves dredging, drilling, piling into the ocean,” she said. "It causes sediment disturbance. It causes water quality pollution through the chemical discharge. There’s a lot of underwater noise as part of it.”

Once the project is in operation there will be more marine traffic in the area, causing further disruptions, and routine underwater surveys the company will do to check for leaks will further harm the ecosystem, she said.

“This is really impactful and harmful to whales particularly, but it can negatively impact anything from plankton which have been shown to die up to 1.2 kilometers (3/4 miles) away from these seismic impulses,” she said “And this goes on for decades while this project is underway, because they have to continually monitor these CO2 plumes that they’re injecting underground.”

Inpex did not respond to an email from The Associated Press asking for comment.

Japan — one of the world's top polluters — has ambitious goals to reduce its carbon emissions by 60% by 2035 from the 2013 levels, and by 73% by 2040.

But heavily polluting industries such as steel and cement production, oil refining and shipping are vital to Japan's economy. Fossil fuels generate a vast majority of its energy.

To bridge the gap, the government has said CCS is indispensable.

“It enables decarbonization in areas where transitioning to non-fossil fuel alternatives — such as electrification or the use of hydrogen — is challenging. Consequently, CCS has become indispensable for simultaneously achieving a stable energy supply, economic growth, and decarbonization,” a 2025 briefing by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, said.

The ministry did not respond to an email from AP asking for comment.

Japanese companies have other CCS projects.

Off the coast of Chiba, where surfing made its Olympic debut during the Tokyo Games, a large platform juts from the water, marking where exploratory drilling is taking place for the Tokyo Metropolitan Area CCS project, a joint project between Inpex, Nippon Steel and others to capture CO2 from steel plants and store it offshore. Another Japanese company is also planning to ship emissions to Malaysia .

Environmentalists say the ramping up of CCS will prolong the use of heavily polluting fossil fuels.

“We see it as a greenwashing tactic that fossil fuel companies are using to green light continued pollution instead of doing the obvious choice of ramping down production and phasing out fossil fuels,” said Deng.

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