The European Union is on track to meet its target, being able by 2030 to inject 50 million tonnes of CO2 annually into storage sites (EU Regulation 2024/1735), the European Commission concluded in a report sent on Friday 29 May to the European Parliament and Council of the EU.
Carbon capture and storage (CCS), regarded by the European Commission as “one of the main decarbonisation technologies available to industries with hard-to-abate emissions in the EU”, consists of capturing carbon emissions released into the atmosphere, storing them and injecting them into the ground at dedicated geological storage sites.
The long-term objective is to achieve the underground storage of 200 million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2040, as part of the EU’s climate-neutrality objective by 2050.
Currently, operational CO2 storage services exist in Italy (since 2024), Iceland and Norway (since 2025). Two other facilities will soon be operational in the EU, in the Netherlands and Denmark (2026).
An injection capacity of 60 million tonnes of CO2. The European Commission assessed the Member States’ national energy and climate plans (NECPs) and deduced from them that “in total, 35 million tonnes of CO2 could be captured each year in the EU by 2030, with a view to permanent storage”. It adds that “27.1 million tonnes of CO2 could be injected each year into storage sites located in the EU by 2030”.
In addition to the NECPs, 10 Member States have planned carbon storage and injection projects (Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Spain and the Netherlands), which could represent “a total storage potential of around one gigatonne available by 2030” and an “estimated annual injection capacity of 33.12 million tonnes of CO2”. On the demand side, “the total of the CO2 capture estimates in the EU, provided by the Member States, could exceed 32 million tonnes per year”, according to the Commission. This means that 64% of projects contributing to the EU objective by 2030 could be projects known to the Member States. The condition sine qua non is the provision of transport infrastructure to the injection sites.
Uncertain contributions. The 44 oil and gas producers concerned must demonstrate their individual contributions to the EU objective by the end of 2030 at the latest. These are calculated on the basis of each entity’s crude oil and gas production between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2023. They may choose to contribute alone, in cooperation or through agreements with storage developers.
In the plans submitted by the 44 producers in 2025, “the maximum CO2 injection capacity amounts to 29 million tonnes”, according to the Commission. From June 2026, the producers referred to will have to submit a report every year on their progress in meeting their mandatory individual contributions, which the Commission will publish. It calls on the Member States to determine penalties for these entities in the event of failures to comply with their obligations.
The report: https://aeur.eu/f/m51
The entities concerned: https://aeur.eu/f/m4v (Original version in French by Nadège Delépine)