At a conference in the European Parliament hosted by Lambert van Nistelrooij (EPP, Netherlands) on Thursday 23 March and through publication the same day of its market economic report, the Zero Emissions Platform (ZEP) which supports carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology highlighted the huge potential of CCS for sustainable growth and for achieving Europe’s climate commitments more cheaply.
After EU countries (France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain and United Kingdom) plus Norway and Switzerland were modelled, the new report stated that, in all these countries, CCS will be essential to achieving the 80-95% emissions reduction target set out in the EU 2050 energy roadmap.
The report also highlights the great importance of CCS to the future competitiveness of key European industries such as steel, cement, chemicals and refining, arguing that these industries can achieve a step-change in emissions reductions in scenarios where CCS is available.
ZEP’s modelling shows that to achieve the least-cost pathway for meeting Europe’s climate change targets, CCS must be deployed from the early 2020s onwards. This will require the urgent development of CO2 transport and storage infrastructure. It will unlock negative emissions from 2025 and lower emissions in 2050.
According to ZEP, the CCS technology market in the EU could exceed €1,000 billion by 2050 and grow by over €50 billion per year thereafter.
“The Paris agreement has set the bar high with the aim of keeping the global temperature increase to well below 2 degrees. CCS is absolutely critical to ensuring that Europe can play its part in meeting this goal. Not only is CCS ready for commercial deployment, but our new modelling shows that its value to the EU could exceed €1 trillion between now and 2050. It also confirms that Europe has sufficient storage resources to meet the CCS industry’s needs until 2050”, said ZEP in a press release, calling for the industry and the European Commission to work together to take CCS forward.
Thursday’s event, organised by ZEP in partnership with the Norwegian Oil and Energy Ministry, the International Energy Agency (IEA) and Gassnova, the state company responsible for CCS development in Norway, examined how CCS could contribute to clean growth and sustainable job creation.
“CCS is essential for the EU to reach its long-term climate goals and deliver on the promise to be the global leader in climate change mitigation. CCS technology is ready for immediate implementation. The EU has lost a lot of time. We must now ensure that key advances are made through commercial testing to reap its full benefits, as in the Dutch ‘ROAD’ project, as well as further stimulate its innovative applications”, said Nistelrooij. (Original version In French by Emmanuel Hagry)