North Sea Anti-dumping Convention

HC Deb 08 May 2003 vol 404 c799W

Mr. Colman

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what actions have been taken to amend the London Anti-Dumping Convention for the North Sea Region to enable carbon sequestration to take place in the geological formation following the extraction of gas and oil. [110455]

Mr. Wilson

DTI, Defra, and FCO are jointly examining the London Dumping Convention 1972, the 1996 Protocol to that Convention, and the 1992 OSPAR Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North East Atlantic to assess their compatibility with the storage of carbon dioxide in subsea geological formations. The outcome will be summarised in the DTI Report of the Feasibility of CO2 Capture and Storage in the UK, expected early summer 2003. The Government intends to raise the issue of such storage before the appropriate forums under these Conventions.