A lengthy trilogue negotiation on the NZIA took place yesterday and CCS Europe has received news of the outcomes of negotiations on Articles 16-18.
Chris Davies, Director of CCS Europe, commented on the developments of the interinstitutional negotiations: "this outcome confirms that CCS has a major role to play in Europe's future climate policy. The CO2 storage requirements not only free a logjam that has held back carbon capture but will focus minds in a way that will help drive forward investment."
The Commission's proposal that 50 million tonnes of annual CO2 storage capacity should be made available by 2030 has been agreed. This will be the target within the European Union, and pays no regard to additional storage capacity that may be provided by EEA countries or the U.K. Individual Member States may make third party agreements but a recital will be drafted to confirm that these will not detract from the 50MT target.
Three years after entry-into-force the Commission will report on the operation of the legislation and consider proposing a storage target for 2040 or earlier. The Parliament's suggestion for the target to be set at strict 5-yearly intervals was not confirmed.
The obligation to provide the storage sites will rest primarily on oil and gas companies that currently hold exploitation licenses, subject to the Danish/Dutch qualification agreed by the Council. The Parliament's proposal that all suppliers of fossil fuels (including service stations) should be required to contribute was not agreed.
The call for infrastructure to facilitate the transportation of CO2 to be included amongst the net-zero priority technologies has been agreed.