Baker & McKenzie Contributes to Global CCS Institute "Strategic Review" and "Ideal Portfolio" Reports
Firm News
November 5, 2009
Sydney, Australia, 5 November 2009 – Lawyers from Baker & McKenzie's Global Environmental Markets practice have contributed to the "Strategic Analysis of the Global Status of Carbon Capture and Storage" published by the Global Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Institute in late October and the report on the "Ideal Portfolio" of CCS projects, released yesterday.
The Global CCS Institute is funded by the Australian government with the aim of accelerating the worldwide development and implementation of carbon capture and storage technologies. The Global CCS Institute will support commercial-scale CCS projects to ensure their contribution in reducing carbon dioxide emissions domestically and internationally. Members include governments from across the globe, leading global corporations and industry associations, global not-for-profit organisations and advisers in the global carbon markets.
The "Strategic Analysis" is a comprehensive audit of the global status of current CCS projects. Commissioned by the Global CCS Institute, the report was written by a Worley Parsons-led consortium of Schlumberger, Baker & McKenzie and the Electric Power Research Institute. Lawyers from Baker & McKenzie contributed the legal and policy analysis of CCS projects. The report on the "Ideal Portfolio" of CCS projects was prepared by L.E.K. Consulting in consultation with global experts, including Baker & McKenzie. The "Ideal Portfolio" categorises 26 priority projects which, together, have the greatest potential to significantly contribute to large-scale commercial CCS deployment by 2020.
The Global CCS Institute members' meeting will be held in Paris in November 2009. Baker & McKenzie Partners Andrew Beatty from the Firm's Sydney office and Graham Stuart from the Firm's London office will be attending the meeting. Speaking about the reports and the forthcoming meeting, Andrew Beatty said, "We were very pleased to have been asked to bring our extensive experience of advising governments and companies operating in the carbon markets to contribute to these important reviews. Over thirty of our lawyers from a dozen of our offices worked on these assignments. This work follows earlier advices we have provided on CCS projects and policy around the world.
"Just as the global carbon markets have developed rapidly to involve many new and traditional business enterprises, we expect that CCS projects will quickly become a major new infrastructure sector in which many of our clients will eventually participate.
"Both the Strategic Review and the Ideal Portfolio report show that there is increasing action being taken to seek to achieve the G8 objective of deploying at least 20 commercial-scale CCS projects globally by 2020. We welcome the opportunity of discussing these projects and further development of CCS projects the along with our fellow Institute members in Paris next week."