CCS Europe Director, Chris Davies features on Euractiv with op-ed under the title “Testing Time for CCS”.
On the occasion of the anniversary of the FID granted to the Danish Kalundborg CO2 Hub project, Chris put pen to paper to share his view that since that momentous day one year ago, progress has stalled. As of today, there is still no CO2 being stored within the EU on anything other than a pilot basis.
The Kalundborg CO2 Hub project project is intended to start capturing 430,000 tonnes of CO2 annually by 2026. Since its FID was granted, only five further FIDs have been taken, all in the Netherlands and most for blue hydrogen production.
As Chris states in his article, “To meet the Commission’s target of capturing 280 million tonnes of CO2 annually by 2040, construction of no less than 650 carbon capture plants of similar scale must commence over the next 14 years - or one every eight days”.
To reach the heights of the Commission's target, Member States need to take the initiative. Yet, too many Member States are still to recognise CCS as a legitimate and necessary part of the solution to decarbonise. Commissioners must take action and push national ministers to include CCS technologies in their national decarbonisation strategies. With the updated National Energy and Climate Plans being published in June, minister must acknowledge the role of CCS in industrial decarbonisation.
To make CCS happen, Chris lays the responsibility at the feet of outgoing European Commissioners to challenge their national capitals to do more: “It may be regarded as impolite or politically controversial for them to speak out without restraint. But after all, with their term in office coming to an end, what have they got to lose?”