Canada invests in carbon capture and storage in Nova Scotia

HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA - The Honourable Gary Lunn, Minister of Natural Resources, announced that the Government of Canada will provide $5 million to support carbon capture and storage (CCS) research in the province of Nova Scotia.

"Canada's fossil fuel resources are one of our country's biggest economic drivers, but we must find cleaner ways to produce and use these resources," said Minister Lunn. "With our world-leading carbon capture and storage technology that supports our balanced approach to fight climate change, we can achieve our goals in a way that is good for the environment and the economy."

According to the report of the Canada–Alberta ecoENERGY CCS Task Force, CCS technology could allow Canada to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 600 million tonnes a year by 2050 – an amount equal to almost three-quarters of Canada's current annual emissions.

The potential for underground storage of carbon dioxide in Western Canada is already well known. The new funding from the Government of Canada will be used to assess whether similar CCS opportunities can be developed in Nova Scotia, where coal-fired generating stations supply some three-quarters of the province's electricity.

"We need to know if carbon capture and storage represents a practical tool to protect the environment," said Richard Hurlburt, Nova Scotia's Minister of Energy. "Nova Scotia has some of the best researchers in the country – and now they have funding to find out."

The Government of Canada's contribution to the research was included in Budget 2008 and will be delivered once legislation has been passed.

Budget 2008 committed $250 million in funding for CCS research. In addition to the $5 million in funding for the Nova Scotia project, Prime Minister Harper announced $240 million for the Boundary Dam Project in Saskatchewan on March 25, and Minister Lunn announced $5 million in funding for the Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment and Economy at the University of Calgary on April 4.