EU sets world’s first target for underground CO2 storage capacity
▻https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy-environment/news/eu-sets-worlds-first-target-for-underground-co2-storage-capacity
Carbon capture and storage (#CCS) is listed as one of the key technologies for the green transition in the Commission’s #Net-Zero_Industry_Act, presented on Thursday.
And for the first time, it includes an EU-wide target to capture CO2, with a legally-binding objective of reaching an annual injection capacity of at least 50 million tonnes of CO2 by 2030.
“It is indeed a legally binding target,” said a senior EU Commission official who briefed the press on Thursday. “And it is also accompanied by an obligation for fossil fuel companies – the oil and gas producers – to contribute to that target,” the official added.
[...] CCS is expected to grow to 80 million tonnes of CO2 in 2030 and reach at least 300 million tonnes in 2040, according to EU estimates. By mid-century, the EU would need to capture up to 550 million tonnes of CO2 annually in order to meet its objective of reducing emissions down to net zero, the Commission says.
However, it is currently confronted with a “coordination failure”, the EU executive added, because of the lack of CO2 geological storage sites available.
To scale up the technology, “the EU needs to develop a forward-looking supply of permanent geological CO2 storage sites,” the Commission argued, adding that CCS requires a “cross-border, single market approach” in order to be an effective climate solution for industries in all EU member states.