Ahead of the Commission adoption of its Revision of the TEN-E Regulation, Bellona Europa and  Clean Air Task Force (CATF)  want to raise some issues within the debate around the existing draft.

Europe needs modern, clean, secure and smart energy infrastructure to deliver the Green Deal. The aims of the revision of the guidelines for trans-European energy infrastructure is to ensure EU energy infrastructure policy is consistent and aligned with the climate neutrality objective of the Green Deal.

Nearly all EU net-zero by 2050 scenarios rely on large scale carbon capture, removal and storage and the Revised TEN-E Regulation European Commission’s draft neglects some key elements for geologic storage and transport modalities other than pipeline –  integral parts of the value chain of carbon capture, removal and storage.

Both NGOs have submitted official consultation responses ( CATF, Bellona Europa) but further developed the two pagers “Ten-E missing puzzle piece on pathway to Net-Zero” which aims to explain how the inclusion of TEN-E could contribute to the EU climate
objectives and the deployment of a net-zero future. The TEN-E Revision reflects some of the paths for industrial decarbonisation, but it doesn’t deal with the practicalities. So we’re suggesting two key changes:

1.  Ensure the climate change mitigation potential of carbon dioxide networks by including CO2 storage on equal footing to CO2 transport.
2.  Ensure optimized cross-border benefits for EU Member States by including transport modalities other than pipelines.

A monumental shift in policy is needed to scale it – and we believe TEN-E is a perfect place to start.