10 years of ISO TC 265: Culture, politics, COVID, and progress

Behind any international standard, are countless hours of work done by subject matter experts from around the world. This process requires both mutual trust, respect and flexibility. The technical committee of the International Organization for Standardization tasked with developing technical standards for the carbon capture, transport and storage, as well as enhanced oil recovery using CO2 (TC 265), has had an interesting and complex history and development. More recently, despite being used to working part of the time face-to-face, the TC 265 has been able to overcome travel restrictions, lockdowns and work from home orders following the COVID-19 pandemic, for the benefit of the global commercialization of CCS and CO2-EOR. In addition to introducing the standards and how they can be used, this paper will shed some light on the dynamic processes behind developing international standards.