Dr Aldous is the chief executive of Co2CRC, the research group that has spent more than a decade pumping about 65,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide deep underground near Port Campbell in Victoria.

The goal of successfully storing carbon emissions underground has always attracted its share of sceptics, but in light of this week's climate pact between China and the United States, it looks set to become a serious focus of future efforts to reduce the levels of carbon in the atmosphere.

"The United States and China will undertake a major carbon capture and storage project in China that supports a long term, detailed assessment of full-scale sequestration in a suitable, secure underground geologic reservoir," the White House said this week.

"The United States and China will make equal funding commitments to the project and will seek additional funding commitments from other countries and the private sector."

Projects like Dr Aldous' Otway project enjoyed lucrative funding streams during the term of the Howard Government and the early years of Kevin Rudd's leadership, but the long journey to commercialisation saw the sector gradually lose its prominence, both in the public debate and in the race for government funds in recent times.

But in 2014, the campaign has been noticeably picked up by big resources companies like BHP and Rio, both of whom have declared their faith that technological breakthroughs in things like carbon capture and storage will allow the world to continue burning fossil fuels without the bother of climate change.

It's understood the work undertaken at the Otway project has particularly impressed BHP chief Andrew Mackenzie - whose scientific expertise lies in the molecular aspects of hydrocarbon wells - while Rio energy boss Harry Kenyon-Slaney has also declared the technology to be fully proven.

"It is indeed possible to have a coal-fired energy sector and a lower emissions economy. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is technically available. It's been commercially deployed in gas processing and enhanced oil recovery for more than a decade. Applying it to power generation is primarily a commercial challenge, which history shows can be met through technology and cost reductions," said Mr Kenyon-Slaney earlier this month.

Dr Aldous agrees, saying this week that the technology - which sees carbon dioxide buried and stored into micro-porous rocks like sandstone and limestones beneath a firm rock cap - was proven to work, with the main hurdle to widespread adoption being the cost.

"The technology is there and workable, it is a bit like the big mobile phone of yesteryear, it has got to come down a learning curve, the costs have got to come down and we have got to get the regulatory systems and financial systems in place to actually drive it," he said.

In that regard the repeal of the carbon tax, which the big miners advocated, has actually slowed progress toward the successful commercialisation of carbon capture storage, which in Australia is expected to need a carbon price of close to $50 per tonne to be viable.

"Everywhere that people are working and developing this technology, they are all pretty clear that it's a carbon price that is going to make it happen," said Dr Aldous.

"The world's coal resources and all this energy is too valuable for humans to leave in the ground, so we've got to find the next way of dealing with the challenge we have."

The Otway project is just one of several being trialled in Australia, with Chevron also planning to store close to 4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide beneath its Gorgon LNG project in WA.

But despite the growing advocacy from big business, opponents remain unconvinced. Greens Senator Christine Milne questioned this week why the world would bother with carbon capture and storage when renewables were available as an alternative.

Australian Conservation Foundation chief executive Kelly O'Shanassy said the technology could not be considered proven until it was successfully connected to a coal-fired power station

"Unless it is proven at commercial scale and actually operating from a coal plant then it is not proven. You can get things to work at small scale, experimental scale, but until it is actually attached to a coal plant and working it is unproven," she said.