The importance of designing a comprehensive Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) & Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for carbon capture and storage in Japan

摘要

CCS projects involve a complex legal mechanism. The IPCC (2005) clearly indicated that installations of CCS technology require 'long-term management' by: ensuring careful site selection; monitoring systems; regulations; and remediation and liability measures. While a large volume of legal study on CCS has been undertaken, a variety of SEA and EIA and their possible mixed approaches are also being considered for designing an effective policy and legal framework for CCS (e.g. IEAGHG, 2007; and Koornneef et al. 2008, 2011). Yet, the best practice of the mixed approach to assisting a policy, legal and regulatory framework is unclear, due to the lack of experience and the varied levels of comprehension. Japan intends to commercialise CCS technology in the future. This paper provides an analysis of examining: whether the key roles and elements of SEA and EIA in response to long-term management are being covered in the current CCS law in Japan. The outcome of this study creates a novel framework of legal analysis, an application of the framework that articulate insights into Japan's legal issues, and a set of potentially useful lessons for the future design of policy and legal framework for CCS projects.