The original topic for this research was focused toward the effect of chlorides on the initiation of localized corrosion on carbon steel in a CO2 environment but after some investigation the effect of solution ionic strength on the corrosion mechanisms related to initiation of localized corrosion became more evident. The investigation was approached using two-stage experimental design. The first stage was to build a protective FeCO3 layer on the steel surface in an electrolyte with a low concentration of the salt (NaCl or NaClO4) by purging CO2 and adding additional ferric ions for a high initial FeCO3 saturation condition. The second stage was to challenge the FeCO3 layer by adding additional salt (NaCl or NaClO4) where the effects of chlorides could be compared. For both stages linear polarization resistance (LPR) measurement was performed to measure the general corrosion rate during the experiment followed by weight loss for general corrosion rate and profilometer measurements for localized corrosion rate after the experiment. In addition X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) were used to analyze the composition and morphologies of the corrosion products.The results showed that localized corrosion was initiated in the experiments that were conducted at 80ºC and 0.53 bar pCO2 with a 1.7 molar (10 wt. %) NaCl with almost identical results obtained when using NaClO4 with the same ionic strength as NaCl. This indicated that changing the ionic strength of the solution which leads to the change of the solubility of iron carbonate was the key to initiate localized corrosion rather than the specific type of chloride used.Keywords: Pitting corrosion CO2 corrosion sodium chloride sodium perchlorate ionic strength iron carbonate