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This document aims to respond to the SET-Plan Secretariat’s request to identify CCS and CCU market-ready projects that are innovative and mature enough and that could be financed through the Recovery and Resilience Fund as well as other sources.

CO2 infrastructure, CCS, CCU and hydrogen should be at the core of a truly integrated, climate-neutral energy system.
The European Commission has recently released a Communication on An EU Strategy for Energy System Integration, outlining how a climate-neutral energy system should be developed and what steps Europe needs to take to deliver on this promise. To achieve the EU’s objective of becoming climate-neutral by 2050 in a cost-effective way, all low-carbon technologies, such as CCS and CCU, that are scientifically proven and readily available, should be deployed. The strategy for Energy System Integration also takes the view that a technology-neutral approach should be privileged to deliver a net-zero compliant energy system.

ZEP supports the European Union’s commitment to reach climate neutrality by 2050, defined as net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050. To this end, carbon capture and storage (CCS) and carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) technologies play a crucial role.

In the context of the revision of the EU ETS Monitoring and reporting rules, ZEP has provided a response, stating that all CO2 transport modalities – pipeline, ship, barge, truck, and train – should be included in the EU ETS.

ZEP supports the European Union’s commitment to reach climate neutrality by 2050, defined as net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050. To this end, carbon capture and storage (CCS) and carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) technologies play a crucial role.

As geological storage sites are not evenly distributed among member states, the large-scale deployment of cross-border, European CO2 transport and storage infrastructure is crucial to reach the European Union’s objective of net-zero GHG emissions by 2050. This infrastructure will enable clean, competitive energy and industrial sectors, early large-scale clean hydrogen and, not least, the delivery of significant volumes of carbon emission reductions and removals.

The Zero Emissions Platform (ZEP) and high-level representatives from energy and industry companies attended a meeting with Executive Vice-President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans on 9 July. The discussion focused on highlighting the role of CCS and CCU technologies in the recovery plan and shovel-ready projects were presented, showing the European Commission that CCS is necessary for the EU to reach climate-neutrality by 2050.

The Zero Emissions Platform (ZEP) would like to thank the European Commission for a transparent process leading up to the planned first call of the Innovation Fund. ZEP appreciates the opportunity to provide feedback and engage with DG CLIMA at the Expert Group meetings, as well as in bilateral meetings, and is thankful for the timely updates provided at the ZEP Advisory Council meetings and network meetings.

ZEP has provided input to DG CLIMA to highlight some issues that arise in the current state of design of the Innovation Fund, which ZEP believes are considerable and could have negative effects on the possibility to reach the EU target of net-zero GHG emissions by 2050.

Challenge: The current Taxonomy screening criteria disqualifies the entire CO2 infrastructure even if only the smallest amount of the CO2 is aimed for utilisation.

Background

The regulation establishing a framework for Sustainable Finance was approved by the Council on 15 April and was adopted by the European Parliament on 18 June. In Article 10, this regulation refers to environmentally safe carbon capture and utilisation (CCU). The Technical Expert Group on Sustainable Finance (TEG) has also recommended that the Platform on Sustainable Finance look at how and under what conditions to include CCU technologies in different manufacturing sectors in the future.

Challenge: The current Taxonomy screening criteria disqualifies grid-connected manufacturing of hydrogen and aluminium, regardless of the technology used.

Background

In the “EU Taxonomy Report: Technical Annex” that was published on 9 March 2020, the screening criteria specifies that the average carbon intensity for the electricity that is used for manufacturing of hydrogen and aluminium must be at or below 100 gCO2e/kWh.

In order for any electricity grid-connected hydrogen and aluminium manufacturing to be defined as sustainable according to the Sustainable Taxonomy, there is a need to adjust or make an addition to the screening criteria in the Technical Annex to the Taxonomy report under 3.5 Manufacture of Hydrogen and 3.3 Manufacture of Aluminium.

This amendment is crucial to allow for electricity grid-connected sustainable hydrogen and aluminium manufacturing, enabling timely scale-up of clean hydrogen.