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Publish date: March 27, 2013
News
Restarting the CCS Agenda in Europe
The CCS Leadership Coalition is a group of companies, scientists, researchers and environmental NGOs committed to put the CCS higher up on the EU agenda. Its members – Shell, Alstom, Bellona Europa, E3G, CCSA, Sintef and The Prince of Wales EU Corporate Leadership Group – welcomed today’s publication in a press release.
‘’ We welcome the publication of the CCS Communication alongside the 2030 Green paper and consultation on the 2015 International Climate Change Agreement as these three issues are inseparable. CCS must form an integral part of the 2030 package because it is central to tackling climate change in Europe and abroad. We reassert the statement from the Commission that early deployment of CCS offers the potential for a green re-industrialisation of Europe’s industries.
CCS remains a critical technology in tackling climate change. Decarbonised economies without CCS will be significantly disadvantaged, carrying a much higher cost burden, than those that embrace the technology. The International Energy Agency has calculated that if CCS is not deployed at scale the cost of tackling climate change will be USD 2 trillion over 40 years. The essential role of CCS has been acknowledged in the EU’s 2050 Energy Roadmap noting that “for all fossil fuels, CCS will have to be applied from around 2030 onwards in the power sector in order to reach decarbonisation targets”. Heavy industry will have no option but to re-locate or close if CCS is unavailable.
[picture2]Europe losing out
The first round of the NER 300 funding programme failed to deliver financial support for any CCS projects in the EU. This puts the EU behind the United States, Canada and Australia who have all already made investments in commercial-scale CCS projects. As recognized by the IEA, and others, a delay in implementing CCS will put the EU on a path whereby decarbonisation will ultimately be more expensive. That is bad for climate change objectives, European competitiveness, jobs and technological progress.
Next steps
We acknowledge the critical role of the EU ETS in promoting low carbon technologies, including CCS, in the long term. However it is clear that today’s low carbon price will not enable the necessary and immediate investments in CCS. The EU must now consider what additional policy measures are required to ensure that the first CCS projects, in the EU, operate this decade in order to enable the widespread deployment of CCS by 2030. The CCS coalition looks forward to contributing positively to the policy dialogue in the coming months and urges the Commission and Member States to rapidly move forward with proposing measures and ensuring that CCS forms an integral part of the final 2030 proposals.
“CCS is the only proven technology which can reduce CO2 emissions from fossil fuel sources at the rate and scale required to avert dangerous levels of climate change. CCS is essential to mitigating CO2 emissions from European power plants and other energy intensive industries. The energy industry has the expertise and we now need to work with the politicians to quickly delivery CCS in Europe” said Jonas Helseth of Bellona Europe.
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.