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EU energy chief announces ‘strategic vision’ for CCUS in 2023
(EurActiv, 28 Oct 2022) The European Commission will table a “strategic vision” for carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) technologies next year, with the aim of clarifying rules and giving certainty to investors, EU energy chief Kadri Simson announced on Thursday (27 October).
With global CO2 emissions continuing to grow year on year, scientists have warned that capturing carbon will be needed alongside reductions if the world is to prevent drastic global warming.
With CCUS technology, captured emissions can either be stored or recycled into other industrial processes. Norway has pioneered the technology and has started injecting captured CO2 in depleting oil and gas fields offshore since the mid 1990s.
“I believe that CCUS has incredible potential in our race to reach climate neutrality. And without carbon capture and storage and carbon capture and usage, it will be practically impossible to limit the global warming to the 1.5°C objective,” Simson said at the CCUS Forum in Oslo, Norway.
Modelling by the European Commission shows that the EU will need to capture and utilise or store between 300 and 640 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) every year by 2050 if it wants to meet its climate neutrality goal.
This is because some hard-to-abate industries and agriculture are likely to continue emitting residual carbon dioxide by 2050, even if the EU succeeds in decarbonising other sectors of the economy.
To help guide Europe towards this, the European Commission will table a communication next year, Simson announced.
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EurActiv, 28 Oct 2022: EU energy chief announces ‘strategic vision’ for CCUS in 2023
