Brussels, 21/05/2014 (Agence Europe) - On 20 May, the European Commission launched a public consultation on the EU legislation on the capture and geological storage of carbon (directive 2009/31/EC, known as the CCS directive), in order to help it to prepare for its revision of this text. All interested parties are invited to take part online between now and 16 July.
The Commission is obliged to re-examine this directive of the climate/energy package of 2009 and to present a report to the European Parliament and Council by 31 March 2015, together, if necessary, with a legislative proposal on this directive, which lays down the regulatory framework to encourage this environmentally safe technology.
The results of this consultation will be fed into the external evaluation of the directive, which was started in April of this year by the consultancy firm Triple E Consulting (Netherlands), working with Ricardo AEA (United Kingdom) and TNO (Netherlands).
The aim of the exercise is to assess the effectiveness of the CCS directive and to make the implementation of its provisions easier by taking account of the perspectives of the EU energy and climate policy as well as policies and legislative measures with a bearing on this promising technology, which has not been developed in the EU at the anticipated rate. So far, not a single demonstration project has seen the light of day (see EUROPE 10804).
The European Commission hopes to gather as many data as possible for analysis. It will also hold consultations with all stakeholders and properly assess the technical, environmental, economic, legal and social aspects to be taken into account to increase the use within the EU of an instrument to fight climate change, which is still up against too many obstacles to play its full role.
The consultation is available online at: http://www.ccs-directive-evaluation.eu/stakeholder-registration (AN)