The European Commission will table a “strategic vision” for carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) technologies next year, with the aim of clarifying rules and giving certainty to investors, EU energy chief Kadri Simson announced on Thursday (27 October).

With global CO2 emissions continuing to grow year on year, scientists have warned that capturing carbon will be needed alongside reductions if the world is to prevent drastic global warming.

With CCUS technology, captured emissions can either be stored or recycled into other industrial processes. Norway has pioneered the technology and has started injecting captured CO2 in depleting oil and gas fields offshore since the mid 1990s.

“I believe that CCUS has incredible potential in our race to reach climate neutrality. And without carbon capture and storage and carbon capture and usage, it will be practically impossible to limit the global warming to the 1.5°C objective,” Simson said at the CCUS Forum in Oslo, Norway.

Modelling by the European Commission shows that the EU will need to capture and utilise or store between 300 and 640 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) every year by 2050 if it wants to meet its climate neutrality goal.

This is because some hard-to-abate industries and agriculture are likely to continue emitting residual carbon dioxide by 2050, even if the EU succeeds in decarbonising other sectors of the economy.

To help guide Europe towards this, the European Commission will table a communication next year, Simson announced.

While the details are still being worked out, she said it could include quantifying the potential role of CCS and CCU in decarbonisation, clarifying the rules governing CO2 infrastructure, better involvement of industry and giving certainty to investors.

Oil and gas industry support

The oil and gas sector has long argued in favour of CCS, saying Europe needs a strategy to deal with emissions from industries that cannot easily be electrified.

It is now calling on the EU to set a target for CO2 storage capacity of 0.5 to 1 gigatonnes of CO2 per year minimum by 2050, as well as an interim target for 2035.

“It’s time for Europe to get serious about CCS,” said said François-Régis Mouton, regional director for Europe at the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP).

“A common ambition is the first step to know where we want to go, and it is needed to give emitters visibility on the storage volumes available to them,” Mouton said ahead of the forum’s meeting in Oslo.

The oil industry’s enthusiasm for CCS has raised suspicion from environmental NGOs, which have portrayed it as a fig leaf by oil majors so they can continue polluting.

But a growing number of them now believe action is needed to get CCS technology off the ground in order to tackle the residual emissions that are still expected to come from industry by mid-century.

The Commission’s upcoming strategy is a “very positive development,” commented Alessia Virone, EU affairs director at the Clean Air Task Force, a US-based environmental group.

Up to now, the deployment of carbon capture technology has been “hampered” by a lack of political commitment and that missing clarity has deterred investment, she told EURACTIV.

EU funding

Simson acknowledged this, saying a lack of funding, infrastructure and regulation was standing in the way of the technology’s deployment on a wider scale.

“It’s an opportunity we’re not making the most of – yet,” Simson said.

“The potential impact of these technologies is too important to leave to chance. Speed, involved discussion and action will all move us forward,” she added.

Funding is the most common issue mentioned by project developers, according to Simson. The gap between announcements and actual funding for CCUS is expected to hit almost €10 billion by 2030, the Clean Air Task Force warned in May.

There are some finance options available, however, including under the EU’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme as well as the Innovation Fund appended to the EU carbon market.

In the coming weeks, the EU executive will launch a call for proposals for CCUS under the Innovation Fund with a budget of €3 billion, more than doubling the previously allocated amount, Simson said.

Support is also growing at the national level. Both Denmark and the Netherlands have made moves to boost CCUS technology while Belgium, Sweden, Croatia and Greece have all included CCS and CCU related investments in their national recovery plans.

Infrastructure

Lacking infrastructure is another area that trips up carbon removals. Currently, there is a “chicken and egg situation” with no CO2 transport or storage due to the fact there is no CO2 to deal with, said Simson.

In its May 2022 report, the Clean Air Task Force warns that, based on announced project timelines, there could be a 50% shortfall in developed storage capacity by 2030.

The NGO calls for more public support in developing large stores, introducing requirements for the fossil industry to move towards storage site development, incentivising the reuse of existing fossil infrastructure for CO2, and better permitting.

There are already some positives regarding improving infrastructure. For instance, CO2 storage and transport are now included in the cross-border energy regulation (TEN-E) that supports projects spanning multiple countries and grants access to additional funding.

Progress is also being made on the regulation front, including a carbon removal certification system expected at the end of November.

This will be useful to make removals possible and provide the methodology and certification needed, Virone said. Next year’s communication should then be broader, not only looking at removals, but at different parts of the value chain and include a target, she added.

Alongside this, the EU executive is looking into the regulatory environment around CCUS to find any gaps that risk holding back the market. This includes looking into issues like third party access, common standards and regulatory oversight. The results of this are expected next year.

Simson did not specify when the communication would be published. However, Virone hopes that the amount of work the Commission has already put in means it will come out quickly in 2023.

Source: Euractiv.com