Nirranda leads way

Warrnambool Standard
Friday 3/11/2006, Page: 4

A PROJECT to bury greenhouse gas at Nirranda will be a crucial part of the fight against global warming, scientists visiting the site from around the world said yesterday. The project, run by the Cooperative Research Centre for greenhouse gas Technologies (CO2CRC), involves injecting carbon dioxide deep underground, a technique known as geosequestration.

More than 30 international scientists visited the site yesterday to hear about the innovative processes to be used at Nirranda. Among the group was Dr Nick Riley, a key adviser to the British Government and European commission on greenhouse gas issues. He said the Nirranda project would make a significant contribution to what was a crucial technology if global warming was to be overcome.

"It really is a no-brainer," he said. "Geosequestration is vital - the world is so dependent on fossil fuels and we have to reduce emissions extremely rapidly." Alternative fuel sources such as wind power were part of the answer, but they reduced greenhouse emissions at a much slower rate than burying gases underground, he said. "Large-scale geosequestration can achieve the same emission reduction in one year as the UK's entire wind power scheme has in over a decade." He also endorsed a recent report by British economist Sir Nicholas Stern which highlighted the escalating costs of failing to deal with climate change.

"At the end of the day society will have to pay for its carbon dioxide emissions - and the longer we leave it, the more it will cost."CO2CRC chief executive Dr Peter Cook said the increasing importance of geosequestration meant the Nirranda project had acquired an international reputation. "We're doing things in better and smarter ways than ever before. It's really putting the project on the world stage," he said.