Governments around the world are trying to reduce emissions of carbon gases because these are responsible for global warming. Australia has made the first step in this process. A large underground carbon storage facility was opened in the southern state of Victoria, near the town of Warrnambool, west of Melbourne. It will capture carbon dioxide from a power station and store it two kilometers beneath the surface. Rock formations will be used. These will absorb like giant sponges the carbon dioxide. It will be compressed into a liquid and stored underground.   

On the one hand, researchers are optimistic, saying that the program will help Australia make deep cuts into its greenhouse gas emissions, the Voice of America reports.

On the other hand, environmentalists are not so convinced that this will work. They are concerned that leaks from underground facilities could have harmful effects in the future. But Peter Cook, one of the product’s architects assures them that the experiment will be “the most comprehensive monitoring program for stored carbon dioxide anywhere in the world.”

“You've got to, A: capture the CO2 [carbon dioxide], so you've got to get a hold of it first of all, then you compress it effectively into liquid form and you pump it down into the ground somewhere where it's securely kept for a long time,” professor Victor Rudolph, a chemical engineer at the University of Queensland explained, quoted by the same newspaper. “So, you've got to either find a cave or a space and something that seals it within that space then it just stays there forever.”

He is convinced that this will be one of the largest projects in the world and a real test of geo-sequestration under Australian conditions.