Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd last week launched a government-funded initiative to coordinate and accelerate large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects worldwide.

The Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute (GCCSI), based in Canberra, will "galvanize global efforts to demonstrate and deploy CCS", Rudd said on 16 April. Australia is the world's leading exporter of coal and a big user of the fossil fuel, and will fund the GCCSI with up to Aus$100 million (US$70.6 million) a year. Support for the public-private partnership has already been pledged by around 20 governments and more than 40 industrial companies.

GCCSI head Nick Otter said that the institute's first task would be to assess the state of mooted large-scale CCS projects around the world — financing for many of which has been derailed following the global economic downturn — in preparation for G8 discussions in Sardinia in July.