Mark is Chief Executive Officer of Low Emission Technology Australia. He is an experienced advocate and communicator on resources and energy issues. Prior to joining LETA, he was Managing Director of a public relations and communications agency with clients in the resources and energy sectors. Previous roles also include an Executive at the Minerals Council of Australia, the Australian Head of Government Relations with Shell and the Deputy Chief Executive of APPEA — Australia’s peak oil and gas industry association. Mark has also held roles as a senior manager in resource industry representative bodies and as an advisor to the Federal Government. Mark is a non-Executive Director on a number of Boards currently including Australian National Low Emission Coal R&D Limited and the Coal Industry Advisory Board to the International Energy Agency. Mark has a Master of Environmental Law (ANU), Bachelor of Science (ANU), and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

More details to follow.

Tim Dixon is the Director and General Manager of IEAGHG, an international research organisation focussing on carbon capture and storage (CCS). He is responsible for IEAGHG delivering the evidence base on CCS to members and wider stakeholders, and for international knowledge sharing through the largest CCS conference series, GHGT conferences, and numerous workshops. Tim has extensive experience representing CCS in UNFCCC and other international agreements since 2004. Outside IEAGHG, Tim is a Director on the Board for The International CCS Knowledge Centre (Canada), an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Texas in Austin (USA), an Honorary Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh (UK), an original Board Member of the UK CCS Research Centre, and chairs or sits on advisory committees on CCS projects and programmes around the world. 

Australia is endowed with extensive natural resources including sedimentary basins suitable for geological storage of CO2. Under the Resourcing Australia’s Prosperity initiative, Geoscience Australia will build on over 20 years of research and pre-competitive data acquisition to develop a better understanding of Australia’s geological storage resource potential. This includes establishing the National Carbon Dioxide Storage Resource Atlas and developing an improved capacity to assess injectivity and whole of basin pressure management. In combination with policy efforts to enable transboundary movement of CO2, the outcomes of the initiative will further cement Australia’s role as a key regional hub for emissions reduction.

Debates about Australia’s CCS prospects often begin with seemingly rational questions of “competitive edge”: the ability to attract investment, deliver projects efficiently, secure bankable storage, and sustain clear, clear regulatory settings. But alongside this analytical frame sits a more forceful realpolitik: shifting CCS narratives, activist pressure, investor scepticism, and short-cycle political volatility that can undermine long-cycle project needs. This presentation counterpoints these two lenses—what the evidence says Australia needs to stay ‘competitive’, and how political dynamics shapes outcomes. By comparing peer jurisdictions, we test whether Australia is gaining, holding, or losing ground—and what actions might restore credibility and leadership.