News
Publish date: January 13, 2014
News
The CO2 Capture and Storage (CCS) Test Centre at Mongstad in Norway (TC Mongstad) was intended to eventually become a full-scale CCS demonstration site. Since the announcement in the autumn of 2013 that these plans would be scrapped, project initiators and managers have faced fierce criticism.
Although the new Norwegian government has confirmed that TC Mongstad will at least continue as a high-end test centre, both old and current ministers will face questioning on January 22 and 23 during a parliamentary hearing of the control and constitutional committee. Bellona President Frederic Hauge will also be in attendance.
Those responsible for the mismanagement which led to a serious reduction in ambition levels for the much needed demonstration of CCS, will now have to answer for their actions.
The hearing will be the second largest hearing in Norwegian history, including former prime minister Jens Stoltenberg, who rather infamously announced the start of Mongstad project as Norway’s equivalent of the US ‘moon landing’. Stoltenberg was recently appointed the United Nation’s new climate envoy and says he is looking forward to explaining himself at the hearing, maintaining that the intention of moving CCS forward has been achieved. Only days before the announcement of the Mongstad cancellation, the Office of the Auditor General of Norway published a report calling the management of Mongstad ‘wretched’.
The following will attend the hearing on Monday January 20:
On Thursday January 23:
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.