Europe is showing how regionally appropriate policy and funding frameworks can take CCS from individual projects to connected industrial markets, says Dr Richard Leese, Head of Europe at the Global CCS Institute.
It’s too early to call Europe a carbon capture and storage (CCS) success story, but the foundations of a functioning market are taking shape. Our Global Status of CCS report shows that the region is now home to 13 per cent of the world’s operational projects and accounts for more than one third of the global pipeline under construction. An acceleration in deployment will be needed to meet the Net-Zero Industry Act target to achieve at least 50 million tonnes of annual CO₂ injection capacity by 2030, but for now at least it remains an achievable goal.
More than the project count, Europe is beginning to demonstrate how a connected market could operate in practice – from Yara shipping CO2 from the Netherlands and storing it off the coast of Norway via Northern Lights, to Greensand entering into commercial operation and taking steps to offer storage as an industrial service.
So what’s working, and what can other parts of the world learn from Europe’s experience?
To some extent the key ingredients are the same as they ever were: state support, including funding, and a strong legislative framework that financial decisions can be made against. Northern Lights has shown the power of the public purse as a first mover to get projects off the ground and sustain them while private investment crowds in.
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