Greenhouse gas ocean burial can start Feb 10

OSLO (Reuters) – International rules allowing burial of greenhouse gases beneath the seabed enter into force on Saturday in what will be a step toward fighting global warming, if storage costs are cut and leaks can be averted.

The new rules will permit industrialists to capture heat-trapping gases from big emitters such as coal-fired power plants or steel mills and entomb them offshore — slowing warming while allowing continued use of fossil fuels.


“Storage of carbon dioxide under the seabed will be allowed from February 10, 2007 under amendments to an international agreement governing the dumping of wastes at sea,” the U.N.’s International Maritime Organization (IMO) said in a statement.

The new rules, agreed upon in November, amend the U.N.’s London Convention on dumping at sea. Its text had been unclear about whether carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas emitted mainly by burning fossil fuels, counted as a pollutant.

Reuters