Cross-Border CCS for Asia Pacific

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) will be an essential technology for driving global progress on climate goals. Both the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have said CCS must be scaled up significantly to achieve net zero.

CCS will be particularly important for Asia Pacific, where strong economic growth and significant expansion of energy use are expected over coming decades. It’s estimated that 60 per cent of global emissions reduction from CCS could come from the APAC region by 2050, constituting as much as 3 gigatonnes of CO₂ per annum.

The importance of cross-border CCS to Asia Pacific

Cross-border value chains will be necessary to unlock the full potential of Asia Pacific because, unlike North America and Europe, the largest sources of emissions are geographically distant from the largest storage sites.

Major industrial economies like Japan, South Korea and Singapore have the ability to capture industrial emissions, but not the geological capacity to store them. On the other hand, countries such as Australia, Indonesia and Malaysia possess significant storage space and have signalled interest in providing CO₂ storage services.

Effect on manufacturing

Cross-border CCS in Asia Pacific will be essential to driving decarbonisation of hard-to-abate industries (such as steel, cement, chemical and fertiliser manufacturing), where other emissions reductions options are limited. These industries are vital to everyday life but extremely challenging to decarbonise unless the chemical processes involved are fundamentally changed.

The state of play for cross-border CCS in Asia Pacific

Momentum for cross-border CCS has been growing in the region for several years. This is reflected in the large number of preliminary agreements between countries looking to progress transboundary CO₂ value chains.

Malaysia and Indonesia have both signed MOUs and collaboration agreements with Singapore, Japan and Korea on cross-border CCS projects, while Australia’s decarbonisation partnerships with those three countries also reference CCS.

While these pointers have been welcome, progress towards more concrete outcomes has been slow. A regional policy and regulatory environment that is still nascent and which lacks uniformity in the way nations treat aspects of CO₂ transactions has the potential to hold back the development of cross-border CCS.

ANGEA’s industry-leading study

To address this, the Asia Natural Gas and Energy Association (ANGEA) partnered with Boston Consulting Group on a groundbreaking study aimed at Accelerating Cross-Border CCS in Asia Pacific.

The study produced a first-of-its kind framework for governments to draw upon in bilateral discussions about cross-border CCS. It outlined options to ensure avoidance of double– counting of emissions reductions, accountability for liabilities of leaked emissions, and adoption of best practice in the operationalisation of projects, including transport, injection and monitoring of CO₂.

Encouragingly, we have seen the study and its recommendations referenced within government documents in the region.

Cross-border CCS in practice

Europe’s Northern Lights JV, which has developed the world’s first open-source CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure, is the standout global example of cross-border CCS in action.

The project – the first phase of which came online in the second half of 2025 – involves the transportation of liquefied CO₂ in custom-designed ships for injection 2600m below the seabed of the North Sea.

After starting out with annual emissions storage capacity of 1.5 million tonnes per annum and Norwegian CO2, Northern Lights will quickly scale up to 5mtpa capacity and receive CO₂ from industrial facilities in Denmark and the Netherlands.

Guiding Lights for Asia

While the establishment of cross-border CCS will be different in Asia Pacific to Europe, Northern Lights provides key learnings that can help inform the development of value chains in our region.

Photo via Ruben Soltvedt/Northern Lights

Cross-border CCS will bring economic opportunities for Asia Pacific

Development of cross-border CCS in Asia Pacific will not only offer decarbonisation benefits but generate significant new economic opportunities for countries throughout Asia.

Boston Consulting Group has estimated that cross-border CCS value chains in the region could support as many as 300,000 jobs and add up to $US220 billion in GDP annually as soon as 2035.

The economic opportunities will be particularly noteworthy for storage countries such as Australia, Indonesia and Malaysia. Wood Mackenzie estimated in 2024 that opening all of Australia’s additional storage capacity to regional emitters could generate $US325–385 billion in revenue.

$622 billion of investment to come

Wood Mackenzie has also projected that cumulative investment in Asia Pacific across capture, transport and storage could reach $US622 billion by 2050.

In line with ANGEA’s study, Wood Mackenzie noted that the ability for cross-border CCS in Asia Pacific to achieve its full potential would depend on “multi-party collaboration, well-defined regulatory alignment, and clarity around investment responsibilities and long-term liability.”

Fostering cross-border CCS in Asia Pacific

ANGEA travels regularly throughout Asia Pacific for discussions about cross-border CCS with stakeholders and speaking engagements at key industry events.

In 2025 and 2026 our schedule has taken us to Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, China, Melbourne and the remote South Australian desert (!), and further afield to Paris and the UK.

Policy settings are key

There has been a strong focus on emphasising the policy and regulatory challenges for cross-border CCS in Asia Pacific and how the framework produced by our study can help accelerate bilateral agreements and project development.

News from the CCS world

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