CO₂DataShare: Open data as a cure for a climate crisis

The rapid development of the COVID-19 vaccine demonstrated that open research and data sharing can achieve results that typically take years within months. These principles are embodied by the CO₂DataShare platform, which shares high-quality datasets from carbon capture and storage (CCS) research and implementation projects, in order to fast-track the deployment of cost-efficient CCS technologies. This will reduce our CO₂ emissions and bring us closer to achieving our climate goals.

From development to deployment in record time

In 2020, the world was plunged into social and economic disarray by the COVID-19 pandemic. Widespread lockdowns were implemented in most countries, while governments, private companies, health experts and researchers scrambled to find a vaccine. While vaccines traditionally take years to develop, the COVID-19 vaccine advanced from development to deployment in less than 12 months. This remarkable achievement can in no small part be attributed to the significant amounts of data and knowledge that were shared between the actors involved. In short, the COVID-19 vaccine demonstrated the value of transparency and collaboration in addressing a global health crisis and accelerating scientific progress.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared an end to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2023, but we continue to face multiple global crises. In particular, the climate crisis, that of rising temperatures due to increased anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and the associated threat this poses to life on the planet, is a prevalent and persistent challenge that humanity is yet to tackle.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies are essential for reducing our CO₂ emissions and achieving net-zero climate targets. Globally, extensive research, development and deployment is underway; according to the Global CCS Institute, the number of CCS projects is steadily increasing, with 50 facilities currently in operation and 44 under construction. In Norway alone, more than 40 research & innovation projects and nearly 60 demo projects are currently supported by CLIMIT, the national programme for research, development and demonstration of CCS technologies.

• Read more about SINTEF’s research into CCS

Yet, while a CCS market is emerging, high costs and associated potential risks remain significant barriers to widespread deployment. A lack of good quality, relevant data is a key challenge, as although valuable data is generated by many CCS projects, it is often not readily accessible.

By using the same prescription as for the health crisis and facilitating open access to relevant CO₂ data and knowledge, we can fast-track the development of cost-effective and safe CCS technologies and solutions. The digital platform CO₂DataShare can serve as a powerful tool to achieve this.

A valuable resource for accelerating global CCS deployment

CO₂DataShare is a simple, low-cost digital portal for sharing CCS data that was launched in 2020. It is the only open-access solution for data sharing dedicated to CCS. The unique CCS data-sharing framework offers significant value, as it contributes to:

• Driving Innovation: Sharing CCS data fosters collaboration, supports AI and digital analysis, and enables new insights, model tests, and technology development;
• Ensuring Reliability: Open data allows researchers to validate findings, compare methods, and improve analyses across research groups, which contributes to faster commercialisation and deployment;
• Reducing costs and risks: Learning from past projects helps to avoid mistakes, optimise planning, and enhance CCS economics;
• Building expertise: Transparent data sharing supports education and skills development for future CCS professionals.

By making curated datasets from research, pilot, demonstration and industry-scale CCS projects globally accessible, CO₂DataShare can be a valuable resource for the international research community working to accelerate CCS R&D and the world-wide deployment of CCS.

The portal is developed by SINTEF, with financial backing from Gassnova’s CLIMIT R&D Programme (Norway) and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy & Carbon Management (USDOE). In 2023, it came under the stewardship of the Norwegian CCS Research Centre (NCCS), and passed to its successor, gigaCCS, in 2025. The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and the International Energy Agency’s Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme (IEAGHG) are project partners. Both the portal and its data are hosted by Sigma2, which manages the national e-infrastructure for large-scale data and computational science in Norway.

Quality datasets from past and ongoing CO₂ storage projects

Since the start, CO₂DataShare has curated and published datasets from several CO₂ storage projects. To date 57,000 data component downloads have been recorded from over 1,000 organisations across 90 countries.

The first dataset made available on the portal was from Equinor’s Sleipner project, one of the first CCS projects in the world. For years, Sleipner has been used as a reference for CO₂ storage by research organisations and companies, and now, CO₂DataShare enables anyone to access quality data from the project.

Other datasets have subsequently been added to the platform, such as rock mechanical data generated by NGI for the Northen Lights CCS project, Smeaheia reference datasets, and datasets from the injection and storage of CO₂ in the Illinois Basin – Decatur Project, USA. We also have ongoing dialogue with several data owners about the possibility of sharing more datasets.

Recently, the portal published seismic data from the Svelvik field laboratory, a small-scale field lab located south of Oslo. This data is the result of an experimental campaign conducted by SINTEF in 2019 in the ACT-funded project, Pre-ACT. CO₂ was injected into the 65-metre-deep injection well (#2 in the picture below) surrounded by four 100-metre-deep monitoring wells.

Data acquisition was conducted before, during and after CO₂ injection, with the first dataset serving as a baseline. The main benefit of a dataset with realistic 4D changes is that it enables the development and testing of new 4D data processing and imaging methods, as well methods for data exploitation and quantitative analysis.

The Svelvik dataset was presented during the IEAGHG webinar on 9 May 2025. More details as well as a recording from the webinar can be found on the IEAGHG’s website.

CO₂DataShare will soon include data from the entire CCS value chain

In 2025, CO₂DataShare was awarded funding for two more years. Moving forward, our vision is to make CO₂Datashare the ‘go-to site’ for CCS data. We will advance the current digital platform to share datasets from the entire CCS chain, enhance data sharing capabilities, and publish new, curated, high-quality CCS datasets that provide valuable insights and foster innovation.

During 2025, we are also planning to share new geomechanical data generated by NGI as part of the Northern Lights project and the SimCCS simulation model for designing CCS infrastructure networks developed by Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Open data sharing: a cure for a crisis

Data sharing is key for implementing coordinated and impactful measures at the scale needed to tackle global emergencies. The COVID-19 vaccine demonstrates how quickly we can progress with cross-border and cross-sector collaboration, particularly when combined with political and financial will.

Similarly, we believe that openly sharing CCS data can be instrumental in achieving a meaningful reduction in CO₂ emissions, thereby mitigating the climate crisis. CO₂Datashare offers a valuable platform for engaging the broader CCS community and making quality data publicly available.

CO₂DataShare is actively seeking to expand its collection of curated datasets, which offer broad value to the research community. We invite potential data providers to get in touch with us to explore collaboration opportunities.

Acknowledgements: CO₂DataShare 2.0 (2024-2026) is funded by the CLIMIT Demo programme managed by Gassnova (project number 623389), U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy & Carbon Management and the Norwegian CCS Research Centre, and is part of the research centre gigaCCS. The Svelvik CO₂ Field Laboratory is part of the European Research Infrastructure for CCS (ECCSEL).