The bill should provide the necessary legal certainty in the first place for Vattenfall’s planned €1.5 billion CCS plant in Jänschwalde, scheduled to start operating in 2015.

According to the announcement the German government recognises that CCS technology is ‘indeed necessary to achieve brave emission reductions’. Testing the potential of CCS ‘opens an important perspective for climate protection as coal-fired power stations are bound to remain the most important form of power generation in the years to come’. Furthermore, according to the declaration, CCS could become applied in other sectors of industrial production, such as steel plants and chemical plants.

This new draft bill signifies an effort to resurrect the discussion around effective CO₂ storage in Germany which stopped abruptly before last year’s general elections due to local concerns. Indeed the proposed bill confirms that municipalities will be receiving financial compensation as a result of CO₂ storage occurring in their territory. Furthermore other concerns such as potential conflicts with geothermal applications and energy storage, property protection issues and operator risks are also ‘comprehensively considered’. These are positive steps forward towards addressing local concerns.

The bill envisages an expert evaluation of the technology to the German Parliament in 2017 so that a new law could be subsequently drafted for expanded application of CCS.

Access the announcement of the German Environment and Economy Ministers on the new CO₂ storage bill here (in German)