ZEP supports the European Union’s commitment to climate neutrality by 2050, defined as net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050 and welcomes the Climate Law’s approach to 2050. To this end, carbon capture and storage (CCS) and carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) technologies play a crucial role. These technologies represent a readily available, cost-efficient pathway for decarbonisation of industrial and energy sectors in the European Union. As shown by several modelling scenarios [[1], [2]], large volumes of CCS will be needed for the EU to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.

The European Climate Law is establishing a framework for climate neutrality by 2050 and the European Commission has also announced plans to increase 2030 GHG emissions reduction targets. ZEP would like to stress that increased intermediate targets can only be met if readily available low-carbon technologies (CCS and CCU) are effectively deployed at scale within this decade.

The deployment of cross-border CO2 transport and storage infrastructure in the European Union is crucial to enable large-scale decarbonisation [[3]] that will be needed to be climate neutral by 2050. Such infrastructure will unlock the benefits of CCS and CCU and substantially decrease emissions from energy-intensive industrial processes while transitioning towards low-carbon production. CCS is a crucial technology to support the production of clean hydrogen from natural gas. Producing large volumes of a low-carbon hydrogen will prove to be central towards building a hydrogen economy and the related infrastructure in the next decades.

[1] European Commission, 2018. A Clean Planet for all A European strategic long-term vision for a prosperous, modern, competitive and climate neutral economy. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/clima/sites/clima/files/docs/pages/com_2018_733_en.pdf

[2] IPCC, 2019, Mitigation Pathways Compatible with 1.5°C in the Context of Sustainable Development, page 134, available at: https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/2/2019/02/SR15_Chapter2_Low_Res.pdf

[3] ZEP report on “The Role of CCUS in a below 2-degrees Scenario”, available at: https://zeroemissionsplatform.eu/role-of-ccus-in-a-below-2-degrees-scenario/