CO₂ leakage from geological storage facilities: Environmental, societal and economic impacts, monitoring and research strategies

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) has the potential to significantly limit CO₂ emissions to the atmosphere; however a leakage of CO₂ from transport or storage could have environmental and safety implications. Monitoring of CCS storage is a further challenge, both to assure the public and, should leakage occur, to enable mitigation and verification. This chapter reviews the current state of knowledge regarding environmental sensitivities and monitoring and outlines the challenges for research over the next few years. The current hypothesis is that significantly large leaks would be required to cause noticeable damage in the ecosystem.