Latest news with #IndustrialCarbonManagementStrategy
Euractiv
15-07-2025
- Business
- Euractiv
Europe's Net-Zero Ambitions Need a CO₂ Transport Plan
Europe's bold climate ambitions need solid infrastructure to support them. If the EU is serious in leading the world in clean technologies, curb industrial emissions, and maintain global competitiveness, it cannot overlook one essential component to make this a reality: a regulatory framework for CO2 transport. Carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) is no longer theoretical. Projects across the continent, such as Porthos in the Netherlands and Greensand in Denmark, have moved from promise to practice. These frontrunners have made final investment decisions and begun operations. But for Europe to scale up from isolated projects to a coherent, cross-border network, it must urgently develop a regulatory framework that provides clarity, incentives, and investment certainty for CO2 transport infrastructure. Without this, Europe cannot connect the dots between industrial emissions and safe, permanent storage. The Missing Link in Industrial Decarbonisation According to the European Commission's Industrial Carbon Management Strategy, CO2 transport is the "key enabler common to all pathways." Whether CO2 is destined for underground storage or industrial reuse, it must first be moved. And often it will have to be moved across national borders. The Joint Research Centre estimates that Europe will need a CO2 pipeline network spanning up to 19,000 km by 2050, requiring between €9.3 to €23.1 billion in investment. But the market alone won't deliver this infrastructure at the scale and pace required. We need a European regulatory package to coordinate planning, harmonise technical standards, and unlock public and private funding. Give Investors a Clear Signal The lack of a predictable regulatory framework makes long-term investment risky. Building pipelines, terminals, and storage hubs is capital intensive, and future demand is uncertain. Without certainties, network operators can't justify oversizing infrastructure to capture economies of scale, hence making Europe less resilient. The forthcoming EU regulation must provide such certainties. It should define infrastructure components, establish clear rules on third-party access, and allow for cost-recovery mechanisms like tariff regulation or contracts-for-difference schemes. Most importantly, it must not penalise the first movers. Early investments should be protected through grandfathering provisions or exemptions to ensure regulatory certainty and fairness. Public Funding Is Essential but Not Sufficient The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) and Innovation Fund have taken important steps. In 2024, the Commission awarded €452 million to five CCUS projects. Earlier this year, it committed €1.25 billion for energy infrastructure, including €250 million for CO2 transport and storage. Yet these figures are shadowed by what is needed to meet the EU's 2030 target of 50 million tonnes of annual CO2 injection capacity. Funding must go beyond first-of-its-kind projects. Strategic support should enable network build-out, support smaller emitters, and de-risk private capital. That means significantly increasing budgets in the next Multiannual Financial Framework (2028–2034), launching an Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI) for CCUS, and deploying EIB-backed guarantees to absorb early project risk. Connect Europe. Literally. One of the biggest barriers to overcome is fragmentation. Existing national or even regional rules, such as those in Denmark and in Flanders, are important steps forward, but they risk creating a patchwork that hinders cross-border integration. The EU regulatory package must ensure consistency while respecting Member State autonomy, especially for storage infrastructure. This includes resolving legal barriers to access CO2 stores in the UK and Norway. A bilateral EU-UK agreement recognising each other's carbon market and storage rules would unlock cost-effective storage options, potentially saving EU emitters €2.6 billion per year by 2040. Europe's climate goals shouldn't stop at its borders. Not Just Pipelines While pipelines will be the backbone of the CO2 network, they won't serve everyone. Many emitters, particularly in Southern and Eastern Europe, are far from industrial clusters or storage hubs. For them, non-pipeline transport, for example via ship, barge, rail, and truck, is the only viable solution. The regulatory package must recognise this and avoid subsidy schemes that unfairly favour one mode over another. While regulated tariffs may not be appropriate for ships, access to funding, standardisation of quality and safety requirements, and liability frameworks should apply across all transport modes. The EU must ensure unity by allowing all emitters to participate in CCUS, regardless of geography. Planning for the Future, Starting Now Permitting delays are already affecting projects like Porthos in the Netherlands. Europe cannot afford to let bureaucracy slow down climate action. That's why CO2 transport infrastructure should be designated as "net-zero strategic projects" under the Net-Zero Industry Act, with streamlined permitting, single contact points, and faster environmental assessments. Planning must also be integrated with electricity, hydrogen, and gas networks. Repurposing gas corridors for CO2 transport could cut costs and accelerate deployment. An EU-wide aggregation platform, as envisioned by the Commission, could help match CO2 emitters with storage providers, enable better forecasting, and facilitate investment decisions. A Strategic Asset for Europe This is not just a climate issue. It's an industrial strategy issue. CCUS can safeguard jobs, attract investment, and help decarbonise sectors like cement, steel, and chemicals, where emissions are hardest to abate. By developing a robust CO2 transport network, the EU can lead globally in low-carbon industry while maintaining its economic sovereignty. Getting the regulatory framework right is not just a box-ticking exercise but rather a strategic necessity. Without clear rules, stable funding, and coordinated infrastructure, CCUS cannot scale. If Europe wants to remain industrially competitive while delivering on climate goals, it must treat CO2 transport as the enabler it is. Francesco D'Apolito is EU Senior Communications and Events Officer at CCSA. Thierry Grauwels is the EU Director at CCSA.
Euronews
21-02-2025
- Business
- Euronews
EU must not slow climate action on hopes of future carbon removals, top climate advisor warns
The promise of future technological fixes could deter urgent action to immediately cut greenhouse gas emissions, the chair of the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change (ESABCC) Ottmar Edenhofer has warned. As the climate emergency grows ever more acute, and emissions reduction targets agreed in Paris a decade ago slip out of reach, carbon capture and storage (CCS) is back on the policy agenda in Brussels. 'We recommend a progressive integration of permanent removals in the [emissions trading system] ETS,' Edenhofer said while briefing reporters ahead of the publication of a weighty report into the potential and risks of carbon removals in EU climate action. The ETS, the EU's central climate policy tool, where companies must buy allowances for every tonne of carbon dioxide they pump into the atmosphere, has been credited with driving a switch from coal-fired to renewable electricity generation. If removals were integrated into the cap-and-trade scheme, polluters could theoretically reduce this bill by investing in CCS. But including removals – which could also involve other offsetting strategies such as tree planting – should only be done under very strict conditions. 'And the first condition is this is only acceptable when we can prevent mitigation deterrence,' Edenhofer said. The board's report recommends separate targets for natural and technological carbon removal methods, with strict certification and monitoring. 'Once a robust certification framework is in place, integrating permanent removals into the EU Emissions Trading System will help balance reductions and removals in a cost-effective way,' Edenhofer said. Carbon Management Strategy CCS involves sequestering carbon dioxide, for example from factory chimneys, then purifying, compressing and transporting it to permanent storage sites, typically in depleted gas fields offshore. Critics argue that after more than two decades of development – largely by the petroleum industry, with substantial public funding – this energy-intensive process has yet to be proven at anything like the scale needed to make a meaningful contribution to arresting global temperature rise. Still, the European Commission published a year ago an Industrial Carbon Management Strategy that envisages a multi-billion-euro market-based system to capture and transport huge volumes of CO2 around Europe for use by industry or permanent storage. The EU executive estimates that Europe must be locking away 280 million tonnes annually by 2040, rising a decade later to 450 MT (about a sixth of the EU's total emissions today), if it is to reach its target of net-zero emissions by mid-century. Let the market decide Edenhofer suggested that the market could be allowed to test the credibility of expansive claims of the potential to scale up and bring down the cost of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies. Another climate action policy suggested in the advisory panel's report is 'extended emitter responsibility' – that is, making polluters pay for the removal from the atmosphere of any CO2 they produce. Oil and gas firms could be allowed to enter into a contract associated with a future commitment to carbon removals, posting collateral with a secure intermediary that would only be paid back if the removal is successfully delivered, Edenhofer suggested while discussing various concepts explored by the ESABCC. 'Such a contract would be an important proof of concept,' he said. '[If] this contract would not be accepted in the market, this would reveal that most of the cost reduction expectations are probably too optimistic.' 'And this would also reveal some information about the realistic expectations about the future costs,' he said. Before any of that, petroleum producers face a concrete test of their commitment to CCS in 2030, by which date they are legally required to put in place storage facilities capable of absorbing 50 million tonnes of CO2 a year. For comparison, by far the largest and most advanced CCS project in Europe to date, outside the EU in petroleum-rich Norway, was nearly a decade in development and has an estimated initial injection capacity of just 1.5 MT. The ESABCC report on carbon removals follows another last month in which the advisory board called for urgent action and an end to fossil fuel subsidies to prevent the 2030 target of a 55% emissions cut from slipping out of reach.
