The Norwegian government has given the green light for the detailed engineering design of a CO2 capture project at the waste incineration plant at Klemetsrud in Oslo, Norway.

This is an important milestone in the fight against climate change. The Klemetsrud project will now take a huge step towards realisation. This is a triumph for both Fortum (the operator of the Klemetsrud plant) and the city of Oslo. It gives a boost to the budding CCS momentum in Europe, says Olav Øye, Senior Advisor for CO2 capture and storage at the Bellona Foundation.

For several years, Bellona has advocated CO2 capture at the Klemetsrud plant. This decision indicates that the Norwegian government has serious intentions to promote CO2 capture, says Øye.

HeidelbergCement’s cement factory in Telemark on the southern coast of Norway received government support in June this year for its detailed engineering design study for a CO2 capture plant there. The cement plant and the waste incinerator are part of a project for CO2 capture and storage. A final decision on funding the construction of a full-scale CO2 capture, transport and storage network is expected in a couple of years.

“It is essential that the Norwegian government supports more than one CO2 capture plant demonstration project. Norway must reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to zero or near-zero within the next decades, as must the rest of the world. This will be impossible without CO2 capture and storage”, says Øye.

Norway has already used hundreds of millions of euros on research and development of CO2 capture technology. This has been important. But it is now critical to fund full-scale capture plants for industry. It is normal that the first few plants are more costly than what the plant owners are able to finance themselves. The public purse should therefore help finance these early movers, continues Øye.

Comparable waste incineration plants in Gothenburg, Stockholm, Rotterdam and Amsterdam are actively evaluating similar solutions to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.