Australia started its first CCS system

CCS stands for Carbon capture and storage, which is "an approach to mitigate global warming by capturing carbon dioxide (CO₂) from large point sources such as fossil fuel power plants and storing it instead of releasing it into the atmosphere (Wiki)."

The Otway Basin Project in south-west Victoria will up to 100,000 tonnes of CO₂ captured from natural gas injected 2km underground in a depleted gas reservoir. According to the Wiki entry, it is funded by governments but this article says other funders also involved (budget: 40 M).

I haven't seen any report regarding the leakage issue, which is probably the biggest uncertainty associated with CCS technique. Nothing is wrong for a small scale trail I suppose, especially when scientists are worried about technical advances needed to combat global warming might be greater than we thought.

The other concern is energy use. According to Wiki, "Capturing and compressing CO₂ requires much energy and would increase the fuel needs of a plant with CCS by about 11-40% (at individual plant scale)." Where does this extra energy come from? How much more CO₂ will be released during the process of producing, transporting and using it? Has anybody done research on EROI on carbon for CCS projects?

Just my concerns. I am not against CCS, not yet. But this sort of technical solution worries me. Somehow I sense it will bring us more/bigger problems in the future.

For now, at least we're trying. I classify CCS though, as another "Western medicine" approach, where you only treats problems themselves without addressing the cause. Yes take a headache pill helps. But what if your constant headaches are due to long-term stress that you aren't aware of? What if things will only get worse when you cannot live without those pills, which adds another layer of stress?

On the contrary, a "Chinese medicine" approach takes longer to be effective but it addresses system errors. What would be a holistic way to reduce CO₂ then? Drive less, turn off your lights not only at Earth hour but whenever you can do without...I cannot help wondering, how much CO₂ will be reduced if governments spend those 40$ on creating incentives to encourage people to be carbon-frugal?

Update: here is a bit more information on the background of the project.

Update: Greenpeace just released a report that called CCS "dangerous distraction."

Update: Progress in reducing cost of CCS from Uni of Wyoming.

Update: Rudd announced a $100 million carbon capture and storage Institute

Update: the latest geoengineering effort of an ocean-fertilization experiment

Update: A review on different sorts of geoengeering approaches to deal with global warming.

Update: Why we need geoengineering: it buys us time.