11 July 2024

Open Letter to Member States ahead of Informal Meeting of Energy Ministers 

Dear Counsellor,

Next week’s informal meeting of Energy Ministers is due to take into account the role of the National Energy and Climate Plans in helping to achieve decarbonisation of the energy system.

The Commission’s recent Communication on Industrial Carbon Management made clear that widespread deployment of carbon capture technologies was “indispensable” to the achievement of EU climate ambitions.

Yet the majority of draft National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) submitted to the EU Commission last Summer failed to explain how carbon capture deployment strategies would be developed, how CO2 would be transported and stored, or what financial support would be made available to promote investment. 

Carbon capture is needed not only to curb emissions from hard-to-abate industry sectors, but also to produce blue hydrogen and guarantee a baseload of hydrogen to decarbonise processes in the short-term, and to reduce the CO2 concentration already in the atmosphere by capturing emissions from biogenic sources, such as waste-to-energy plants, for permanent storage or use as an industrial feedstock.

The Communication calls for 280 million tonnes of CO2 to be captured annually within the EU by 2040.  The achievement of this will require construction of many hundreds of capture plants together with associated infrastructure.  It will be a major challenge, but it can also be a major business opportunity for European suppliers to industry.

Hungary’s Energy Minister Csaba Lantos said last year that CCUS may be the only way to ensure the viability and decarbonisation of existing power plants and industrial facilities in his country.  He cited cement producers as an example of an industry sector that will need extensive deployment of carbon capture to curb its CO2 emissions.

Carbon capture plants are currently under construction in Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway, with plans for 100 across Europe well advanced.  A growing number of Member State governments are now trying to address the issue, but time is of the essence.

Members of CCS Europe encourage you to draw the attention of Ministers to the pressing need to develop national carbon capture implementation plans and recognise it in your final updated NECPs.

Please feel free to contact us should you require further information or assistance.

Yours sincerely

Chris Davies

Director, CCS Europe