The future of carbon storage
糖心TV researchers are revealing how carbon shapes our planet and influences climate over long timescales. Our research explores the natural and engineered processes that regulate Earth鈥檚 carbon cycle and help maintain climate stability.
These insights are critical in a changing climate as societies confront the dual challenge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and developing credible ways to remove and store excess carbon already in the atmosphere.
Governments and industries have been exploring ways to capture carbon and prevent it from re-entering the atmosphere. Yet capturing carbon is only part of the challenge. Understanding how long that carbon remains stored, how it behaves once placed into natural systems, and what downstream effects may emerge across land, freshwater, coastal and ocean environments is equally important. Actions taken in one place can have consequences far beyond the site of intervention, unfolding over decades or centuries.
We approach carbon sequestration by examining the whole system. Carbon sequestration is the process of capturing carbon dioxide released largely through human activities, such as burning fossil fuels, and storing it so it does not return to the atmosphere. Our research recognises that Earth鈥檚 carbon cycle operates across vast spatial and temporal scales, linking biological processes, geological systems, ecosystems and human activity. By studying carbon behaviour over long periods of time, we help clarify how natural systems responded to past climate shifts and what this means for the risks and opportunities associated with modern carbon removal strategies.
Our strength lies in bringing together expertise across Earth system science, engineering, economics, law and policy to address carbon sequestration as both a scientific and societal challenge. This approach helps identify where sequestration solutions show promise, where uncertainty remains, and where environmental, ethical and governance risks must be carefully managed. This includes analysing ancient climate transitions to understand long-term carbon feedback loops, evaluating geological formations suitable for secure carbon storage, and examining the policy and economic systems required to manage carbon removal responsibly.
Our research, undertaken with national and international research partners and alongside government and industry, supports a measured and evidence-based approach to climate action. By grounding carbon sequestration in robust science and clear communication, we help de-risk decisions about how and where carbon is managed, supporting climate solutions that are effective, credible and enduring.
2025 Highlights
Research published in 2025 strengthened understanding of how carbon moves through natural and engineered systems and how decisions about carbon removal and storage can be made more reliably. Across geological, biological and economic studies, researchers examined how carbon cycles have shaped past climate change, how carbon capture and storage technologies can operate safely, and how regulation and finance influence real-world emissions reduction. Together, these studies provide clearer evidence of how carbon sequestration can work at scale and over long timeframes.
Understanding long-term carbon cycle feedbacks
We investigated how interactions between climate, nutrients and marine productivity have influenced carbon storage during past global climate transitions. One study used zinc and carbon isotope records from marine sediments to show how changes in nutrient supply and plankton growth led to increased burial of organic carbon during the onset of a long-lived icehouse climate in the Carboniferous period (358.9 million to 298.9 million years ago). A second study demonstrated that enhanced phosphorus weathering increased marine productivity during the Late Miocene (11.6 million to 5.3 million years ago), drawing down atmospheric CO鈧� and contributing to global cooling. These findings show how feedback loops between land, oceans and biological systems can amplify climate change or cooling over millions of years, providing important context for understanding how modern carbon-cycle interventions may influence Earth systems.
Advancing carbon capture and storage solutions
Several of our studies addressed the practical challenges of safely storing captured carbon. Research on sandstone formations overlying deep coal seams showed how mineral composition and microstructure influence the strength and sealing capacity of rock layers critical for preventing CO鈧� leakage. Complementary geological screening work identified deep saline aquifers in western Canada capable of storing hundreds of megatonnes of CO鈧�, demonstrating how subsurface conditions determine storage feasibility. A new biophysical model also improved understanding of how temperature and CO鈧� concentrations influence plant carbon fixation, strengthening representation of biological carbon uptake in climate models.
Governance, risk and investment in carbon removal
Our research also focused on the policy and economic systems needed to support carbon sequestration. Our analysis of New Zealand鈥檚 developing carbon capture and storage framework highlighted the need for clear liability arrangements and long-term monitoring to manage leakage risks and maintain public confidence. Further work examined regulatory questions around which agencies should oversee carbon capture and removal technologies as policy frameworks evolve. Complementary economic research demonstrated how green finance mechanisms and technological innovation together improve carbon emission reduction efficiency, showing how financial systems play a critical role in enabling climate mitigation at scale.
Citations
Barton, B. (2025). The government plans to regulate carbon capture technologies 鈥� but who will be the regulating agency? The Conversation.
Cao, F., He, J., Cao, H., Deng, H., La Croix, A. D., Jiang, R., Li, R., & Li, J. (2025). Quantitative characterization of the multiscale mechanical properties of low-permeability sandstone roofs of coal seams based on nanoindentation and triaxial tests and its implications for CO鈧� geological sequestration. International Journal of Coal Science & Technology, 12, 5.
Dempsey, D., & La Croix, A. (2025). Leakage is a risk with carbon storage projects 鈥� NZ鈥檚 new framework must be clear on how to deal with this liability. The Conversation.
Mirza, S. S., Yi, F. Z., Scrimgeour, F., & Corbet, S. (2025). Green finance and technological innovation: Enhancing carbon emission control in China. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 30, 45.
Prentice, E. J., Barbour, M. M., & Arcus, V. L. (2025). A minimal biophysical model for the temperature dependence of CO鈧� fixation rates based on macromolecular rate theory. PLOS ONE, 20(4), e0319324.
Zhong, Y., Li, Z., Shi, X., Isson, T. T., Yu, J., Kender, S., Liang, Z., Swann, G. E. A., Pullen, A., Weber, M. E., Du, J., Larrasoa帽a, J. C., Zhang, J., Song, Y., Gonz谩lez, F. J., Kaboth-Bahr, S., Li, H., Zhang, Q., Zhao, D., Cao, W., Zhao, M., & Liu, Q. (2025a). Enhanced phosphorus weathering contributed to Late Miocene cooling. Nature Communications, 16, 1124.
Zhong, Y., Chen, J., Liu, S.-A., Yuan, C., Gao, B., Isson, T. T., Algeo, T. J., Sheng, Q., Chen, B., Luo, G., Wang, X., & Qie, W. (2025b). Zinc isotope perspective on global carbon cycling during the onset of the late Paleozoic icehouse. Geology, 53(2), 99鈥�104.