Geological storage of anthropogenic point-source carbon dioxide (CO_2) is increasingly viewed as an important strategy for the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, which has the potential to be deployed globally in many different regions. Much research has focused on the cost of capturing CO_2, with the implicit assumption that storage options would be relatively cheap, plentiful and located in close proximity to future CO_2 point sources. However, CO_2 capture and storage (CCS) will take place at the local and regional scale and will compete with other mitigation options that also exhibit local or regional differences. In this paper, the authors provide an initial examination of the consequence of regionally disaggregated demand for, and supply of, CO_2-storage reservoirs within the context of a globally disaggregated, long-term analysis of both the geology and economics of CCS. Our preliminary analysis suggests that some regions will see their ability to deploy CCS systems constrained by a lack of quality target reservoirs relative to major sources in that region. Other regions appear to have sufficient storage capacity to easily carry them through the 21st century. We examined the regional and global economic implications of the distribution of these sources and sinks in meeting various potential limits to atmospheric CO_2 concentrations. We also examined the degree to which the relative abundance of CCS opportunities in a region influences the adoption of other emissions-mitigation technologies. This analysis confirms that CCS is an important potential response to climate change throughout the 21st century and a technology that can help control the cost of addressing climate change.
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