The European Commission is working on establishing regulations for the industrial carbon management market including carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) guidelines. The Commission published a call for evidence and a public consultation on June 8th on the CCUS deployment named the Industrial Carbon Management Strategy.
The consultation will be running for 12 weeks with the purpose of gathering feedback from citizens, stakeholders, and industry bodies that will be fed into the Commission’s preparations for a new EU strategy for carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) development in the EU. The deadline for feedback is August 31st, 2023. The strategy itself will be published in Q4 2023.
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The Industrial Carbon Management Strategy stems from the EU Green Deal and its Fit for 55 package that increases the EU’s climate target to reduce its net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. The increased target has established carbon capture and storage technologies as an important part of the EU decarbonization efforts.
Therefore, the Commission is trying to speed up the deployment of carbon capture technologies which are now part of its strategy to reach net zero by 2050. The new strategy will include 2040 and 2050 targets for CO2 storage infrastructure, the regulatory needs for CO2 transport and storage infrastructure like third-party access, CO2 quality standards, regulatory oversight and long-term infrastructure planning.
The consultation will aim to explore milestones for market development, procedural questions on the business involvement and international cooperation and issues related to industrial carbon management public awareness.
Relevant: EU Proposes The Net-Zero Industry Act To Scale Up Green Technology Production
In March 2023, Brussels proposed a target for CO2 storage in the EU of 50 million metric tons per year by 2030, and the potential it may need to reach 550 million metric tons by 2050 in order to help reach the bloc’s net zero emissions goal.
The new strategy will aim to facilitate the industrial sector towards its goal of reducing emissions to mitigate climate change. It will serve emitters in hard-to-abate sectors who would need to apply carbon capture and storage (CCS), carbon capture and utilization (CCU), or industrial carbon removals. Robust measures and emissions control is needed in order to decarbonize the economy and achieve a greener future for populations.
