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Publish date: January 25, 2013
Written by: Sirin Engen
News
Although the potential for storing very large amounts of CO2 in the Norwegian Sea was already well-known, as seen in the “CO2 Storage Atlas” from December 2011 for example, a final confirmation from the NPD qualifying this is very welcome.
The quantified amount of 5.5 gigatonnes is more than 100 times Norway’s total CO2-discharge in 2012.
Potential and opportunities for the EU
Bellona regards this as very good news in a European perspective as well, particularly due to the fact that fears relating to CO2 storage erode public support for CCS. In addition, the EU Energy Roadmap 2050 clearly states that the role of fossil fuels in Europe will be dependent on the implementation of CCS. The positive prospective for storage discovered in the Norwegian Sea could play a vital role in managing CO2 emissions in Europe by offering storage space to European countries that are lacking in this capacity.
Norwegian hesitation
Bellona does however question the Norwegian Government’s reluctance to implement the EU CCS Directive (2009/31/EC). Norway thereby joins a club of only a handful of the EU’s 27 Member States, led by the climate-sceptical Poland. The Directive has been deemed EEA relevant, which adds a clear pressure to move forward in implementing it, but it seems obvious that the Norwegian Government are using unnecessary delaying tactics in order to avoid doing so.
A Norway that chooses to take part in the international development of CCS could be proven very positive. The country already has valuable experience from Sleipner relating to the financial responsibility for stored CO2. Such expertise can be of great benefit to the EU, Canada and other countries in the world that are attempting to develop CCS demonstration projects.
The way forward
The NPD plans to map out the entire Norwegian shelf, particularly the Barents Sea, in search of suitable areas for CO2 storage.
Read more about CO2 storage on Bellona’s CCS web.
Recent attacks on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant "mark the beginning of a new and gravely dangerous front of the war," the UN atomic agency's director general said last week.
After years of inaction, Germany is working on its Carbon Management Strategy to resolve how CCS can play a role in climate action in industry. At the end of February, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action published first key points and a proposal to amend the law Kohlenstoffdioxid Speicherungsgesetz (KSpG). Bellona Deutschland, who was actively involved in the previous stakeholder dialogue submitted a statement in the association hearing.
In the midst of a global discussion on whether natural gas should be used as a transitional fuel and whether emissions from its extraction, production, transport and use are significantly less than those from other fossil fuels, Russia has developed ambitious plans to increase its own production of liquified natural gas (LNG) in the Arctic – a region with 75% of proven gas reserves in Russia – to raise its share in the international gas trade.
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our main focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution risks and climate change.