Summary/Abstract
Under the Energy Roadmap 2050, the European Commission (EC) envisioned the broad scale deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies in Europe from 2030 onwards. However, in response to challenges in successfully establishing any large–scale demonstration projects in the European Union (EU), the EC has released a Consultative Communication (the Consultation) seeking advice on how to reinvigorate the CCS demonstration program, with a view to achieving earlier deployment of CCS. This submission is made on behalf of the Global Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Institute in response to the European Commission’s Consultative Communication on the Future of Carbon Capture and Storage in Europe.
The Institute makes the following comments in response to this request:
- To the extent that the EU ETS remains a residual carbon market, given strong policy action on renewable obligations and constrained and uncertain economic growth, mechanisms that rely on revenue recycling are likely to continue to be subject to relatively high levels of price volatility.
- An emissions performance standard could be an important policy to enhance the credibility of EU commitments to decarbonizing energy consumption. However, it would not provide direct support to CCS demonstration projects; and it would provide only limited, if any, support to bring forward the early deployment of CCS projects.
- A CCS certificate system is a mandatory CCS program that provides flexibility on the supply side in that specific technological solutions need not be prescribed, and may possibly minimize the funding requirements necessary to a given number of projects. However, given the long timeframe involved in developing a CCS project, the uncertainty of funding availability at the time an investment decision is to be made, may render the policy ineffective.
-