4th Meeting of the Risk Assessment Network

Publication Overview

The fourth IEA GHG Risk Assessment Network Meeting was held on the 16th—17th April 2009 in Melbourne, Australia, and hosted by CO₂CRC. Cliff Kavonic of Victorian Department of Primary Industries gave the official welcome. The Victorian Government was that day publishing a report by Geoscience Victoria on the storage potential in the Gippsland basin in south Victoria. The fifty six attendees enjoyed the discussions based around the six sessions. These were on reports from other initiatives, leakage impacts, combining monitoring with modelling and risk assessment, insurance and risk, risk communication, and updates from real projects.

Publication Summary

Included a presentation and discussion of risk assessment and insurance. This included discussion of the CCS liability policies offered by Zurich Insurance, and the role of ETS in setting a price for CO₂ The workshop concluded with breakout groups to identify the gaps, recommended actions, and key learning points. In considering the future role of the Risk Assessment Network, the overall conclusion was that it continues to be necessary, but level of openness in the future may not be a great as members’ desire because of increasing commercial sensitivities around real projects. In terms of what are the boundaries of the Risk Assessment Network’s mission – the conclusions from most participants were that it should remain technically focused, although its results are use in the context of economic, political, social and other risks assessments. . This is discussed in more detail in Session 4 of this report. The meeting was followed by a trip to the CO₂CRC Otway project to see first-hand the site and work that had been described during the Network meeting