New partnership tackles wildfire threats to carbon capture projects

A new partnership is forming to address the growing risk wildfires pose to carbon capture and storage (CCS) infrastructure. As climate change drives more frequent and intense wildfires globally, CCS sites and their surrounding ecosystems face direct damage that could release stored carbon or halt operations. The collaboration aims to develop monitoring and mitigation strategies to protect these assets. This matters because carbon capture is a key technology for industrial decarbonization, but its long-term viability depends on secure storage. Wildfires can compromise injection wells, pipelines, and monitoring equipment, and may also burn biomass used in bioenergy with carbon capture (BECCS). The partnership signals that project developers and insurers are starting to treat wildfire as a material operational risk. For carbon markets and climate finance, this adds a new layer of due diligence. Investors and credit buyers will need to assess wildfire exposure when evaluating CCS projects. The partnership could lead to better risk modeling and insurance products, which would help the sector scale safely.