The environmental, social and economic costs of climate change continue to rise, and Australia must move quickly to reach its goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. Current technologies in the removal and storage of carbon are expensive, slow and lack resilience in the face of increasing ecological disasters.
CarbonLock drives innovation at the nexus of engineering, chemistry and biology in carbon capture and storage science to enhance and accelerate the natural processes within the carbon cycle to explore new negative emission technologies that are verifiable, fast, scalable, cost-effective and permanent.
CarbonLock brings a multi-disciplinary approach to develop innovative and integrated negative-emission technologies that can be utilised and deployed at a regional and national scale to achieve fast, scalable and cost-effective solutions.
CarbonLock’s initial areas of focus include:
Atmospheric Carbon Removal
Permanent Carbon Storage
The future science and capability developed in CarbonLock have the potential to underpin new industries and reshape existing industries for Australia and globally, with CSIRO’s science and capability at the centre. The combination of permanent carbon removal and Australia’s natural resources offers the potential to deliver verifiable solutions that contributes to the significant challenge Australia faces to arrive at our net-zero emissions target by 2050 and beyond. It also positions Australia to take full advantage of growing carbon international markets and to identify opportunities for the export and deployment of novel technologies.
Currently in its first year of operation, CarbonLock has commissioned a portfolio of scoping, modelling and investigative projects that will inform its future research activities. These projects will lay the foundations for more intensive research in future years. Encompassing the four focus areas identified above, projects in later years will require upscaling and access to industry and academic collaborators to realise their potential.
