The head of the EU’s climate advisory board, Ottmar Edenhofer, has warned that Europe must be cautious about factoring in a future boom in carbon capture and storage (CCS) into its climate policy. This could potentially lead to “mitigation deterrence,” where the promise of technological fixes in the future could deter urgent action to cut greenhouse gas emissions now. As the climate emergency becomes more pressing and emissions reduction targets set in Paris become harder to reach, the focus on CCS is back on the policy agenda in Brussels. Edenhofer suggests a progressive integration of permanent removals in the emissions trading system (ETS), where companies must buy allowances for emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
The board’s report recommends separate targets for natural and technological carbon removal methods, with strict certification and monitoring to prevent mitigation deterrence. Integrating permanent removals into the ETS could help balance reductions and removals in a cost-effective manner, but only under very strict conditions. CCS involves capturing carbon dioxide, purifying, compressing, and transporting it to storage sites, typically in depleted gas fields offshore. The European Commission published an Industrial Carbon Management Strategy envisioning a market-based system to capture and transport CO2 for use by industry or permanent storage to help reach the target of net-zero emissions by mid-century.
The market could be allowed to test the credibility of claims about scaling up and reducing the cost of carbon dioxide removal technologies. Extended emitter responsibility is another climate action policy suggested, which would make polluters pay for the removal of any CO2 they produce. Oil and gas firms could enter into a contract for future commitment to carbon removal, posting collateral that would only be paid back if the removal is successfully delivered. This contract would serve as proof of concept and provide insight into realistic expectations about future costs. Petroleum producers face a concrete test in 2030, by which date they must have storage facilities capable of absorbing 50 million tonnes of CO2 annually.
Critics argue that after over two decades of development, CCS has yet to be proven at the scale needed to make a significant contribution to limiting global temperature rise. The largest CCS project in Europe, outside of the EU in Norway, took nearly a decade to develop and has an estimated initial injection capacity of just 1.5 MT. The ESABCC report highlights the need for urgent action and an end to fossil fuel subsidies to prevent the 2030 target of a 55% emissions cut from slipping out of reach. The focus on CCS as a potential solution in the future should not deter immediate action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions now to address the pressing climate emergency.
