Unlicensed carbon storage threatens Asia Pacific’s CCS growth

Carbon storage licences are a critical enabler for projects to be considered storage-ready. Licenses reduce project risks, provide execution certainty and support site characterisation, well planning and financing for projects. However, this accounts for only a small percentage of projects licensed in the Asia Pacific. Countries without established carbon storage frameworks present significantly higher project risk. The absence of clear legal guidelines deters investment and delays development. This challenge affects nearly 30% of the nominal storage capacity targeting FID by 2030 in the region, including projects in India, Thailand and Timor-Leste. In this report, we analyse projects by regulatory framework strength using a three-tier framework—projects with storage licences, countries with regulations but no licences, and markets lacking frameworks. We find only 18% are storage ready, while 30% are at risk due to insufficient licensing structures.