Australia to Spend $100 Million on Carbon Capture

Australia will invest $100 million to kick off a global carbon-capture institute aimed at developing technology to store global warming gases, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said. Announcing a plan that he will present to the United Nations General Assembly next week, Rudd predicted that the technology will be able to capture 9 billion tons of carbon by 2050 — about 20 percent of the emissions cut needed to cap atmospheric levels at 450 parts per million. The coal industry has been pushing carbon capture, a not-yet-proven technology in which carbon from a coal-burning plant would be piped deep underground and stored indefinitely. Rudd will invite other countries to join in funding the institute, which will promote research and investment. Saying he wants to make it “the global go-to place across the board for clean coal technologies and their application,” Rudd added that his country will give the institute up to $100 million a year.