The Business Council welcomes today’s announcement that the federal government intends to remove carbon capture and storage (CCS) from the ”prohibited technologies” under the Clean Energy Finance Corporation Act 2012.

Removing arbitrary restrictions on CEFC investments in potentially effective technologies like CCS will allow market participants to determine the most effective technology to invest in.

Support for research, demonstration and deployment of lower-emission and more energy efficient technologies will be critical to ensuring technologies like CCS move down the cost curve. CCS will be critical in meeting emission reduction targets beyond 2030, with the International Energy Agency estimating that CCS will account for around 17 per cent of global CO2e reductions by 2050.

The government’s overarching energy and climate change policy should be open to targeted support for all forms of emerging low-emission and energy efficient technologies that offer opportunities for least-cost abatement, not just support for renewable energy.

Adopting a technology-neutral approach in support of emerging technologies at the R&D stage will provide the opportunity for a greater mix of technologies to advance, so that Australia can preserve optionality and have a better chance of developing commercially successful lower-emission and more energy efficient technologies.