Kim, Duckhoon2025-02-212025-02-212025-02-212025-02-14https://hdl.handle.net/10012/21482Since 2022, Ontario has been investigating the possibility of developing a Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) framework as they aim to reduce carbon emissions and align with the federal government’s goals of net-zero emissions by 2050. This CCS regulatory framework should focus on hard-to-abate sectors where alternative renewable energy technologies are in their early stages, or they are difficult to be transitioned. However, within the research field of CCS in Ontario from a policy perspective, there are minimal journal articles and grey-literature documents that discuss this topic. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to understand and analyze Ontario’s proposal of their regulatory framework for CCS and to give recommendations to the CCS framework by comparing it against the information gathered from other jurisdictions (Alberta, Saskatchewan, the United States, Europe and Australia). Key research questions are 1. How can the knowledge gained from other regions regarding CCS help Ontario's hard-to-abate sectors to understand approvals, licensing, and liability? 2. What are some other necessary policies that Ontario would need to expand upon and potentially adopt from various jurisdictions? And 3. How did companies and governments in other jurisdictions communicate to the public about the need for this technology? The thesis first developed a literature review to compare and contrast policies from other jurisdictions by researching and synthesizing various peer-reviewed journal articles and grey literature. Then, a semi-structured interview was needed to explore any unique perspectives from interviewees with expertise in CCS, and also to understand whether the results aligned with the information from the literature review. Following the interviews, the analysis of the results were accomplished by using ‘codes’ and ‘themes’, which allows for a simplified understanding of which information is unique. As a result, there were unique findings from the interviews such as ensuring proper industries are utilizing CCS, explaining the purpose of CCS, ensuring that the regulatory framework for CCS is properly developed, and the potential for CCS to utilize a carbon market through an Emissions Trading System (ETS). In November 2024, Ontario introduced Bill 228, which contains an Act called the Geologic Carbon Storage Act, 2024. This Act contains the key core components of the regulatory framework, such as ownership, liabilities, and approvals and assessments. As a result, a description and analysis of this Act was undertaken to understand how it compares against my research findings. In conclusion, to answer the first research question, the findings resulted in requiring Ontario to vest in the pore space, implement a unitization statue, implement a transfer of liabilities once certain pre-conditions are met and a post-stewardship fund to cover liability costs. As for the second research question, the other necessary policies include expanding upon environmental assessments methods, using a systems analysis approach to understand the outcomes of developing CCS, incorporating CCS into carbon pricing schemes, and Ontario’s plans on how they should utilize their CCS. The findings for the final research question recommend that the Ontario government and companies recognize the social demographic backgrounds of Ontario; ensure that Ontario is integrating and engaging with communities closely; explaining the downsides of not developing a CCS project; and respecting a community’s decision if they do not wish to engage with the project. Bill 228 is consistent with these findings, namely the inclusion of a liability transfer; a stewardship fund to cover the liabilities for the Crown; unitization of pore spaces; risk management; monitoring, measurement and verification (MMV); emergency response; and various approvals and assessments. However, the ownership of pore spaces deviates from these findings, as Ontario vests pore ownership to the surface owners but still allows the Crown to vest in the pore space when required.encarbon capture and storageCCSOntarionegative emissions technologycarbon captureMaster Thesis