CCS Europe December Newsletter

HEADLINE NEWS

🎁Commission gives early Christmas present to 17 CCS projects. On 1 December, the Commission granted 235 cross-border energy projects the status of Projects of Common Interest (PCIs) and Projects of Mutual Interest (PMIs). Out of these 235 projects, 17 are carbon transport infrastructure projects. 

This is great news, as being granted PCI/PMI status, these projects will be able to apply for financing from the Connecting Europe Facility and will benefit from fast-tracked permitting and regulatory processes for rapid implementation and delivery. Read the Commission's statement here.

👂Parliament is listening to our wish list. After years of dormancy, CCS was finally a topic of conversation in the Parliament's ITRE Committee. Hosted by MEP Tsvetelina Penkova, the gathered MEPs and industry experts emphasised that CCS can decarbonise hard-to-abate industrial emissions while keeping European industry competitive, but it must complement renewables and other solutions.

Strong implementation of the NZIA storage targets was highlighted as critical to provide a real market signal and unlock large-scale deployment. Clear regulatory frameworks, investment de-risking, and leadership by the Commission will be essential, with upcoming milestones like the Industrial Accelerator Act and the ETS Review offering key opportunities to deliver. You can view the discussion here.

🌎COP30 goes on the naughty list. The COP30 in Belém concluded after nearly two weeks of negotiations with high hopes for ambitious climate action, but the outcome fell short, lacking a binding commitment to phase out fossil fuels and leaving global climate ambitions largely unmet and up in the air. While the EU came ready to lead the charge on climate ambition, it faced strong resistance resulting in a watered-down agreement that failed to secure a fossil-fuel phase-out.

While initiatives like the Global Implementation Accelerator were launched to support mitigation and scalable climate solutions, key issues such as urgent emission reductions and adequate climate finance remain unresolved, highlighting the persistent gap between ambition and action.

OUR ACTIVITIES

📃CCS Europe gives its wish list to Dan. Our Members met with Commissioner for Energy and Housing Dan Jørgensen and his team to discuss the critical role of CCS in Europe’s net-zero and industrial competitiveness goals. The gathered members highlighted that CCS is an essential tool for eliminating emissions from hard-to-abate sectors. They also presented the Commissioner with a list of demands to support CCS deployment. See what the Commission needs to do here.

💡How to make CCS work? In his newest blog, our Director Bergur outlines what the Commission needs to do to make CCS work in practice. Bergur, as we all (hopefully) do, recognises that CCS is essential for decarbonising hard-to-abate sectors like cement, lime, steel, chemicals, and existing hydrogen production, since some emissions cannot be eliminated through electrification or efficiency alone. Read his full thoughts here.

🏛️Bergur goes back to the Parliament. This time as a guest, as he met with MEP Jan-Christoph Oetjen to discuss what is needed to ensure EU-wide deployment of CCS. They agreed on the significance of  of the forthcoming CO₂ transport and storage regulation, and the necessity for a robust, harmonised framework to support a genuinely European market. Additionally, they acknowledged that it is important to reduce risks for pioneering projects, especially by tackling the potential for double-penalty exposure throughout the value chain. 

CCS DEVELOPMENTS FROM AROUND THE BLOC

🏃‍♂️‍➡️German carbon storage law reform clears final hurdle. The council of federal state governments in Germany has approved a reform that allows carbon storage under the seabed, enables the buildout of pipelines to transport CO2, and excludes the use of CCS for coal power plants. The legislation permits carbon storage beneath the North Sea and also gives federal states the option to authorise onshore storage. This vote  the final approval for Germany’s major law reform aimed at expanding its CCS capacity. Get all the deets here.

🍅CO₂ capture from biomass combustion now running at Austrian tomato propagator. At Merschl Gartenbau, a tomato propagator near Vienna, CO₂ from biomass combustion is now being captured on site. The Dutch company Green Gas & Liquids has implemented a complete CO₂ capture system for the project. During a test on Friday, 7 November, the system captured 1.8 tonnes of CO₂ per hour, despite the biomass boiler not yet operating at full capacity. Check out how they do it here.

🧪e-Naphtha Plastics: Turning CO₂ Into Sustainable Polymer. Norsk e-Fuel and Braskem are collaborating to explore the use of e-Naphtha, produced from captured CO₂, in the plastics value chain, aiming to create plastics from carbon that would otherwise be emitted into the atmosphere. This partnership follows a circular economy model, keeping carbon in durable materials and industrial products. Read the full story here.