The Commission’s proposals for achieving a 90% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2040 envisage widespread deployment of carbon capture technologies.
However, there is the need for massive investments in carbon capture technologies in order to reach these targets. Less than a year ago, the Ørsted’s Kalundborg Hub in Denmark was the very first CCS project to have taken a Final Investment Decision for a full-chain CCS project within the EU. A couple CCS projects are currently being developed in the EU, but the captured CO2 quantities are well below the trajectory required for the EU to meet its target.
In general, governments across the EU still need to recognise CCS as a legitimate and necessary part of the solution to decarbonise their economy. More than two thirds of all EU Member States have not recognised CCS in their draft National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs), meaning they have no strategy for carbon capture development nor adequate funding mechanisms to bolster CCS technologies.
The Commission must therefore meet with national ministers to argue the need for industrial decarbonisation and emphasise the use of CCS technologies as being “indispensable” to the achievement of climate neutrality.