Bellona nuclear digest. July 2024
A survey of events in the field of nuclear and radiation safety relating to Russia and Ukraine.
News
Publish date: June 6, 2024
News
Brussels, Belgium – Today, the Council formally adopted the Net Zero Industry Act aiming to increase the EU’s manufacturing capacity of technologies that support industrial decarbonisation in Europe.
The Regulation identifies and supports strategic net-zero technologies, including Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), to strengthen industrial competitiveness and energy systems resilience while facilitating the green transition. With the Council’s vote today, the Act has now been formally adopted and will enter into force in the coming weeks.
Bellona Europa is pleased with the adoption of the Act as it marks a decisive step towards ramping up CO₂ storage capacity development, which will be essential for making Europe’s climate goals a reality. The Act comes with various measures to unlock the storage barrier, including making Member States provide transparent data on their potential to develop storage sites, as well as accelerating storage permitting.
The 50Mt CO2 storage capacity development obligation by 2030, soon to be enshrined into EU law, is a crucial step towards solving a key bottleneck: the current lack of available CO₂ storage sites. It will also ensure that emissions are eliminated at the lowest possible cost across the EU.
Importantly, the Regulation will instill market confidence in other key players along the value chain, such as hard-to-abate industries and transmission system operators (TSOs), reducing risks and thereby increasing their willingness to invest and making large-scale, full-chain CCS projects a reality.
Context:
The Net Zero Industry Act (NZIA) promotes strategic net-zero technologies at climate-relevant timelines. Carbon capture and storage (CCS), as one of these proposed technologies, is set to play a crucial role in EU decarbonisation efforts. While not a silver bullet solution, CCS is crucial for industrial decarbonisation and nearly all climate change modelling scenarios highlight that CCS play an important role in reaching climate neutrality at both the EU and global levels.
Download a PDF of the press release here.
A survey of events in the field of nuclear and radiation safety relating to Russia and Ukraine.
Transport on the Northern Sea Route is not sustainable, and Kirkenes must not become a potential hub for transport along the Siberian coast. Bellona believes this is an important message Norway should deliver in connection with the Prime Minister's visit to China. In an open letter to Jonas Gahr Støre, Bellona asks the Prime Minister to make it clear that the Chinese must stop shipping traffic through the Northeast Passage.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has published a new report on its efforts to ensure nuclear safety and security during the conflict in Ukraine, with the agency’s director-general warning that the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station remains “precarious and very fragile.”
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution and climate change.