Discussions take place on CO2

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Curious about those heady plans for Canada and the U. S. to trap nasty greenhouse gas emissions underground? Don’t hold your own carbon dioxide.

Ditto for new fuel emissions standards on gasoline, Canadian greenhouse gas reduction targets and a common position on the next phase of the Kyoto Accord on climate change.

U. S. President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced a new dialogue on climate change following their meeting this week, with a focus on developing new technologies to stem emissions from the coal and oil industries. Carbon capture and storage is a process in which carbon dioxide is taken from the air and buried away from the atmosphere.

But the timelines for when such technologies could actually begin reducing the carbon footprint of the big polluters are unclear. Other climate-change initiatives that have been in the Conservative pipeline for years have now become contingent on what the Obama administration comes up with.

Environment Minister Jim Prentice said work on the environmental technology strategy starts immediately, beginning with high-level meetings with Obama’s top environmental adviser and international climate-change negotiator.

Both governments have earmarked substantial amounts in their stimulus plans for carbon capture and storage research and development.