North America unveils drive for carbon capture and sequestration tech

The push reveals the countries’ interest in reducing emissions of greenhouse gases linked to global warming from refineries or power generation facilities but they also said they would work to reduce emissions from the transport sector including aviation sector, Reuters noted.

The three nations committed themselves to the creation of the "North American Carbon Atlas," which will require uniform mapping methodology and data sharing in the area of large sources of carbon emissions and potential places in North America to store carbon dioxide.

States, provinces or organizations in the three countries would be able to access the data conveyed as a map, through a common portal.

Through this geographical information system, the nations aim to form a consensus on the methodology to calculate the carbon dioxide capacity of various types of carbon dioxide storage systems in North America.

North America will also "explore" ways to collaborate in research and development and demonstration projects related to CCS technologies, including sharing efforts to evaluate alternative uses of CCS technologies, such as Enhanced Oil or Coal-Bed Methane Recovery, the Department of Energy said in a statement today.