CCS for CO2 Reductions

A leak of EU Commission’s draft of the industrial carbon management strategy (ICMS), to be presented next month, shows that the Commission is channelling extensive financial and political efforts to support Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). This draft will be presented with the new emissions reduction targets of 2040.

The draft aims to help EU achieve the net zero vision by 2050. The document states that the bloc will need to capture the equivalent of 450 million tonnes of CO2 every year to meet its climate neutrality goal.

It also suggests a regulatory package under the Emissions Trading System (ETS), developing emissions accounting rules to regulate CO2 transport by different means. The EU is aiming to regulate transportation and storage infrastructures already covered by EU ETS.

The draft also recognizes the challenges it will face, such as the price of carbon and its cost of removal, pointing out that there is much need for more than just integrating a pricing system.

As CCS is the main player in this strategy, member states will be required to evaluate CCS plans for their countries, focusing on factors like financial risks, CO2 transport networks, negative emissions, and others specified in the document.

The anticipated CO2 reduction rate by 2040 has been left out in the document, although it indicates that EU will need to directly capture 200mln tonnes of CO2 from air.