Brussels, 12 July 2024 --

Ahead of the Informal Meeting of Energy Ministers at Council on 15 July, CCS Europe has written to the counsellors of the EU27 to impress upon them the urgent need to address carbon capture as part of Member States’ National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs).

The letter recalls the annual carbon capture target of 280 million tonnes by 2040, laid out in the European Commission’s Communication on Industrial Carbon Management, and restates the need for carbon capture to curb emissions from hard-to-abate industry sectors; produce blue hydrogen energy; and to reduce the concentration of carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere.

‘The majority of 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,’ the letter states.

It goes on to say: ‘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.’

Read our open letter to the energy counsellors of the Permanent Representations of the EU27 in full.