CCS Europe September Newsletter

September edition - web version

7 September, 2026

And we are back! We hope you all had a restful and relaxing summer, although with record-breaking heat across Europe, relaxing may have been easier said than done. If the summer reminded us of anything, it is that the climate change is not taking a holiday. Cutting emissions remains urgent, especially those that cannot be tackled solely by renewables, electrification and efficiency alone. 

September already promises several important developments for the CCS space, following July's publication of the ETS review. This will put carbon pricing, industrial competitiveness and investment certainty firmly back at the centre of the climate debate. Shortly before summer, we also joined a cross-sector call for the rapid implementation of the NZIA Article 23 penalty regime and co-signed a separate open letter urging action to unlock CO₂ storage in the Baltic Sea region under the Helsinki Convention. Together, these developments underline a point we often make: Europe now needs to move from ambition to implementation across the full CCS value chain.

We ourselves also kept busy, welcoming not one but two new members - Ammonia Europe and CCUS Poland - and meeting with MEP Radan Kanev’s office to discuss industrial decarbonisation, CO₂ infrastructure and the double-penalty risk facing early CCS projects. Our Director, Bergur Løkke Rasmussen, also shares his view on why the ETS review must address the risk of "double-penalty" if Europe wants early CCS projects to reach FID.

This edition of the newsletter is approximately 1,000 words long, or around a seven-minute read. Read on! 👇

HEADLINE NEWS

📃 The talk of the town - the ETS review. The Commission has published its review of the ETS, and it has quickly become one of the main talking points in Brussels’ climate and industrial policy debate. For us, a stronger and more predictable carbon market is a positive step. The ETS remains central to industrial decarbonisation and can help strengthen the business case for industrial carbon management and for the CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure Europe needs.

But carbon pricing alone will not deliver projects. For hard-to-abate sectors, investment certainty, targeted de-risking and a functioning CCS value chain remain essential. That is why CCS Europe continues to call for a temporary EU-level guarantee mechanism, funded by ETS revenues, to address double-penalty risks linked to unplanned CCS value-chain disruptions while preserving ETS integrity. The priority now is to turn this signal into investable projects by scaling CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure across Europe.

✍️ The CCS value chain calls for rapid implementation of NZIA  penalties. In early July, 15 organisations from across the CCS value chain, including yours truly, have sent open letter to Member States calling for the rapid implementation of the Article 23 penalty regime under the NZIA. The signatories include infrastructure operators, storage developers, technology providers, civil society organisations and individual experts, showing broad support across the sector for stronger implementation.

The letter stresses that meeting the EU’s 50 Mt CO₂ annual injection capacity target by 2030 will depend on a regulatory framework that gives certainty to investors, project developers and industrial users of CO₂ storage, including through effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalties for non-compliance. For us, the message is clear: targets alone will not build storage capacity. If Europe wants a fully developed CCS value chain, Member State implementation must now match European ambition. Read the full letter here

🌊 The CCS value chain also calls for the unlocking of CO₂ storage in the Baltic Sea. We also co-signed, together with 24 other organisations from across industry, civil society and the wider CCS value chain, an open letter to the Contracting Parties to the Helsinki Convention and the HELCOM Secretariat calling for action to enable environmentally safe geological CO₂ storage in the Baltic Sea region. The letter stresses that legal and regulatory barriers under the current framework are holding back access to potential storage resources and slowing the development of CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure.

For many countries in the region, access to storage will be essential to decarbonise hard-to-abate industries and support the development of a functioning European CO₂ single market. The letter also underlines the relevance of the NZIA 50 Mt CO₂ injection capacity target by 2030, and calls for practical solutions, building on the example of the London Protocol, to unlock cross-border CCS cooperation while maintaining robust environmental safeguards. Read the full letter here.

DIRECTOR'S VIEW

In this month’s “Director’s View”, our Director, Bergur Løkke Rasmussen, reflects on why the upcoming ETS review must address the “double-penalty” risk facing early CCS projects:

"The ETS remains central to Europe’s decarbonisation framework, and CCS Europe strongly supports preserving its integrity. But if the upcoming ETS review is serious about turning industrial carbon management from ambition into implementation, it must address the ‘double-penalty’ risk facing early CCS projects.

If there is a temporary disruption in the CO₂ transport or storage chain, an industrial emitter may still have to surrender ETS allowances for CO₂ that could not be permanently stored, while continuing to bear the fixed and capital costs of its CCS investment. That risk is often outside the control of the capturing installation, and in the early phase of market development it is difficult to allocate contractually, insure or hedge. Without a clear EU-level backstop, this can delay or even block Final Investment Decisions.

The right response is not to weaken the ETS, and not to create free allocation through the back door. What is needed is a temporary, targeted and transparent financial guarantee mechanism, funded through ETS revenues and designed to cover clearly defined disruption events. In our view, the cleanest place for this is under the Industrial Decarbonisation Bank, where it can be treated as a risk-management tool for early movers rather than a change to ETS compliance rules.

Any such mechanism must be tightly framed from the outset: narrow eligibility, objective triggers, strong monitoring and verification, no double compensation, and a clear expiry once the CO₂ transport and storage market matures. Done properly, this would preserve ETS integrity while giving investors the confidence that Europe understands the realities of building the first CCS value chains. Europe’s first CCS projects cannot carry system-wide risks alone."

  -- Bergur Løkke Rasmussen
Director, CCS Europe

OUR ACTIVITIES

☝️ We have a new member - Ammonia Europe! We are proud to announce that Ammonia Europe - the voice of the European ammonia industry - has joined CCS Europe. Ammonia production is hard-to-abate, and while renewable hydrogen will play an important role in long-term decarbonisation, its limited availability, high costs and infrastructure constraints mean that CCS offers one of the most practical near-term pathways to deep CO₂ emission reductions.

✌️And another one - CCUS Poland! We are also very pleased to welcome CCUS Poland as our newest national association member of CCS Europe. As the name suggests, CCUS Poland brings together various Polish industry stakeholders at a national level and plays an important role in advancing industrial carbon management and contributing to the policy discussion on CCUS in Poland. Yeah, July was really active for us on the membership development front.

🤝 We met with MEP Radan Kanev’s office. We discussed CCS and industrial decarbonisation, with a particular focus on steel, cement and the enabling conditions needed to scale projects in Europe. The conversation covered CO₂ transport infrastructure, technical standards, the Industrial Accelerator Act, ETS revenues and the “double-penalty” risk facing early CCS movers. We also exchanged views on how stronger national planning and better EU coordination could help build a functioning European CO₂ network.

CCS DEVELOPMENTS FROM AROUND THE BLOC

🇩🇪 Commission gives green light to CarbonBridge in Germany. Ambrian Energy and Messer have secured European Commission antitrust approval for their planned CarbonBridge joint venture, paving the way for a CO₂ export terminal in Bremen that could become Germany’s first operational facility of its kind. The project is expected to serve sectors including cement, glass, steel and waste incineration, with operations planned from 2031. Read more here.

🚢 MacGregor develops new offshore LCO₂ transfer system. MacGregor has unveiled a new Liquid CO₂ Bow Transfer System designed to connect CO₂ carriers directly with offshore injection sites. By reducing the need for intermediate onshore storage and conditioning facilities, the technology could help make shipping-based CO₂ transport more flexible and strengthen links between capture and permanent storage. Read their press release here.

🇬🇧 Veolia tests next-generation capture at Sheffield energy-from-waste plant. Veolia and C-Capture have launched a pilot at the Sheffield Energy Recovery Facility to test a non-amine carbon capture technology, described as a UK first for an energy-from-waste site. The trial is capturing up to one tonne of CO₂ per day and could help open new decarbonisation pathways for waste incineration. Learn more here.
 

LOOKING AHEAD: SEPTEMBER👀

🗣️ Catch Bergur speaking in Copenhagen. Next Tuesday, 8 September, Bergur will deliver a keynote speech at The Danish CCUS Summit, joining policymakers, industry leaders and project developers to discuss the next phase of CCS deployment in Europe. We will not spoil the whole speech just yet, but here is a little teaser: FIDs. Learn more about the event here.

💂 Oh yes, London too. Later in the month, on 23 September, Bergur will take part in a panel discussion at the Carbon Capture Global Summit 2026 on how to scale CCS globally through acceleration, replication and innovation. More on that here.

That's all for this month. Wishing you a lovely rentrée and stay tuned for our socials as we pick up the pace throughout September.