At a meeting last Monday the Spanish Presidency of the EU put to one side its challenge to the European Commission's proposal for 50 million tonnes of CO2 storage capacity to be made available by 2030. 

Instead, representatives of the other 26 countries discussing the Net Zero Industry Act, were invited to submit their views in writing.

In addition to challenging the proposed storage target, seen as important to give CCS deployment some real impetus, Spain has also suggested dropping the requirement that oil and gas companies be obliged to create the storage sites, and proposed introducing a restriction to limit CCS use to hard-to-abate and energy production sectors (although that definition would in practice be pretty well all-embracing).

This is the time for industry to make its support for CCS known to governments and to the industry attaches discussing the NZIA in the Council's Working Party on Industry.

Feedback I have been getting is that many EU governments still haven't a clue about CCS, and the industries that will need it to curb emissions really haven't been raising their voices in its support when they meet with ministers. 

Chris Davies
Director, CCS Europe