Korea Takes Dual CCUS Role: COP31 Accounting Push and IMO Safety Win

Global commercial CCS capacity is on track to surpass 100 million tons per year, yet scaling toward gigatons depends on cross-border accounting rules and bankable business models — the two fronts where South Korea moved decisively this week at COP31 and the International Maritime Organization.

At a COP31 session on Korea's CCUS landscape, a representative of Korea's Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment said provisional figures show national emissions dropped 11.4% in 2025. Reaching net-zero, the official said, requires deploying CCUS across heavy industries backed by reliable cross-border cooperation.

The session took place as a parallel milestone unfolded the same day at the IMO, where delegates selected a Korean proposal as the foundational basis for international interim safety guidelines for onboard carbon capture and storage (OCCS).

Why does inventory accounting block cross-border CCUS?

Jinhoo Kim, Manager of the Planning and Cooperation Division at the Korea CCUS Association, told the session that updating international greenhouse gas inventory methodologies — building on the 2006 IPCC Guidelines — is critical for Korea's position.

South Korea pairs heavy industrial emissions with limited domestic storage capacity. That mismatch makes clear rules for tracking CO2 across transport, shipping, and permanent geological storage essential, Kim argued. Without them, cross-border projects risk double-counting in national inventories, and projects across Asia-Pacific cannot unlock.

The Korea CCUS Association highlighted the same point as its core message at COP31: updated international guidelines are vital to track CO2 transport, cross-border shipping, and geological storage in national greenhouse gas inventories.

What stands between 100 million tons and gigaton scale?

Jared Daniels, CEO of the Global CCS Institute, moderated the discussion and supplied the capacity numbers. He said 113 commercial CCS facilities are operating globally, with capacity set to surpass 100 million tons per year once projects under construction come online.

Accelerating toward gigaton scale, Daniels said, requires bankable business models and regional hubs — not only subsidies.

"Cross-border applications is one of the key issues we need to talk about because this is a crucial pathway for accelerating deployment globally. And that's applicable in Southeast Asia, with Korea playing a strong role," Daniels said.

On long-term economics, he was direct. "Eventually, we need to find business environments and models that are marketable," Daniels said.

The remarks frame the gap facing the sector: operating capacity is real and growing, but the volumes needed for climate targets are an order of magnitude larger, and the business case remains subsidy-dependent in most jurisdictions.

What did the IMO select, and on what evidence?

At the IMO's Sub-Committee on Carriage of Cargoes and Containers (CCC 12), delegates selected a joint proposal from a 10-member Korean public-private partnership as the foundational basis for international interim safety guidelines for OCCS.

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries leads the partnership, with Korean Register (KR) as coordinator.

The proposal rests on real-world risk assessment. The OCCS-equipped vessel HMM Mongla identified 64 hazard scenarios, and the resulting framework covers shipboard CO2 storage, leak prevention, and offloading ashore. The framework is technology-neutral.

The IMO designation gives Korean industry a standards-setting position in maritime carbon capture at the same moment Seoul presses accounting rules for cross-border CO2 trade on land.

What happens next?

Korea will coordinate a new IMO Correspondence Group on GHG Safety ahead of CCC 13 in 2027, when the sub-committee next meets.

That timeline and the IPCC inventory methodology track now set the milestones to watch: interim OCCS safety guidelines grounded in the Korean proposal, and revised greenhouse gas accounting rules that determine whether CO2 shipped across borders counts once, in the right national ledger. Both decisions will shape whether Asia-Pacific cross-border CCUS hubs move from announced projects to built capacity.