3.2.3 International and national regulations

There are many different directives, regulations and laws concerning CO2 storage site monitoring in place, implemented or developing in different parts of the world in particular in the USA, Canada, Australia and European Union. Only in the EU there is one common CCS Directive applicable to all 27 Member States countries of the European economic area. In the US, Australia and Canada the monitoring requirements are defined at state and provincial level. As a consequence, for example, requirements for post-closure monitoring range between 15 and 50 years.

In Europe, "Directive 2009/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on the geological storage of carbon dioxide" was published on 5 June 2009, and entered into force on 25 June 2009. This Directive established a legal framework for the environmentally safe geological storage of CO2. In article 39 "Transposition and transitional measures" it is stated that "Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive by June 25th 2011", that they "shall communicate to the commission the text of the main provisions of national law which they adopt in the field covered by this Directive" and that they "shall ensure" that the storage sites "are operated in accordance with the requirements of this Directive by 25 June 2012".

By the end of 2011, the transposition of the Directive into national law was approved by the European Commission for Spain only, although it was ready at national/ jurisdictional level in 13 countries (Austria, Denmark, Estonia, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Slovakia, Sweden and the Netherlands) and two regions of Belgium.The process of transposing the EU CCS Directive into national law and the assessment by the EC whether the relevant national laws properly transpose the Directive is still on-going in 2013.

As a result, CO2 storage is now, as of July 2012, permitted in several European countries (France, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, The Netherlands and U.K.) and it is expected that it will be permitted in Hungary. Only offshore storage, mainly use of CO2 for EOR purposes, is permitted in Denmark until 2020. CO2 storage is permitted in Italy, excluding seismic areas; permitted in Belgium except in selected areas (without storage capacity); and permitted in Greece, excluding areas where the storage complex extends beyond the Hellenic territory. CO2 storage is permitted with limitations in Bulgaria. CO2 storage is temporarily forbidden in Austria, Latvia, Sweden, and the Czech Republic. CO2 storage is forbidden except for research and development in Estonia and Ireland. CO2 storage is expected to be forbidden in Finland, and in Poland, except for demonstration projects (until 2024).

According to EC requirements, countries have to transpose the EU CCS Directive in full extent, including CO2 storage site monitoring. Even the countries that decided to forbid storage within their territories are required to have CCS regulations including regulation that refer to monitoring of storage sites. Exceptions from this requirement could be countries which do not have physical possibilities (capacity) for CO2 storage (e.g. Estonia, Finland, parts of Belgium and Slovenia). In most of the national regulations the requirements for CO2 storage site monitoring are included in the law in line with the Directive, often prepared using "copy-paste" approach (Romania, U.K., etc.). According to the Directive, the results of the monitoring must be included in the annual report submitted by the storage site operator to the competent authority. Specific and additional requirements for monitoring could be also included in regulations. For example Spain prolonged requirement for post-closure monitoring specified in the Directive as minimum 20 years up to 30 years (Krämer, 2011).