Media Releases
Statement on the European Green Deal
12th December 2019
The Global CCS Institute welcomes the release of the European Green Deal which puts forward ambitious policies underpinning a comprehensive vision for a climate neutral Europe by 2050. This plan underlines the major transformation required by industry in the next five years and the need to scale up climate ambition across various sectors including energy and finance.
The Commission’s ambitious plan also underlines the important role of carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) as a breakthrough technology that will help deliver a green and sustainable EU industry. The plan rightly emphasizes the need to develop smart infrastructure for CCS, a key element in the deployment of the technology. In Europe, several CCS projects will be using shared infrastructure for CO2 transportation and storage. This common infrastructure will help drive down unit costs across the CCS value chain. Some of the industrial regions planning for CCS cluster development include Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Port of Antwerp in Belgium, Teesside and Humber in the UK.
Welcoming the release of Green Deal, Guloren Turan, the Institute’s General-Manager, Advocacy and Communications said: “With the release of this first communication on the European Green Deal, it is clear that a portfolio of measures, technologies and innovations will be needed to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 in Europe. CCS can play an important role to support and scale-up CO2 mitigation efforts in energy-intensive industries across Europe and accelerate the production of low-carbon hydrogen to decarbonise key sectors such as heating and transport. The technology also has the potential to deliver negative emissions. There are several promising European CCS projects under development that will use common CO2 infrastructure, one that could be used by a multiple emitters across Europe. The inclusion of CCS in the European Green Deal is another positive sign, we look forward to working with relevant stakeholders and the Commission to put in place the right supportive environment for the deployment of CCS in Europe.”
There are currently two operating large-scale CCS facilities in Europe, both in Norway. There are an additional 10 large-scale facilities in different stages of development, six in the UK, two in the Netherlands, one in Norway and one in Ireland. When operational, these facilities will capture a total of 20.8 million tonnes of CO2 per year.