European Carbon Dioxide Removal Policy: Current Status and Future Opportunities

Carbon Dioxide Removal ◽

Current Status ◽

Near Term ◽

Climate Neutrality ◽

Over the past two years, the European Union, Norway, Iceland, and the UK have increased climate ambition and aggressively pushed forward an agenda to pursue climate neutrality or net-zero emissions by mid-century. This increased ambition, partly the result of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's landmark findings on limiting global warming to 1.5°C, has also led to a renewed approach to and revitalized debate about the role of carbon capture and storage and carbon dioxide removal. With increasing climate ambition, including a mid-century climate neutrality goal for the whole European Union, the potential role of technological carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is emerging as one of the critical points of debate among NGOs, policymakers, and the private sector. Policymakers are starting to discuss how to incentivize a CDR scale-up. What encompasses the current debate, and how does it relate to CDR technologies' expected role in reaching climate neutrality? This perspective will highlight that policy must fill two gaps: the accounting and the commercialization gap for the near-term development of a comprehensive CDR policy framework. It will shine a light on the current status of negative emission technologies and the role of carbon capture and storage in delivering negative emissions in Europe's decarbonized future. It will also analyze the role of carbon markets, including voluntary markets, as potential incentives while exploring policy pathways for a near-term scale-up.

Why Policymakers Should View Carbon Capture and Storage as a Stepping-stone to Carbon Dioxide Removal

Global Policy ◽

10.1111/1758-5899.12513 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 102-106 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Bryan Maher

Keyword(s):

Carbon Dioxide ◽

Carbon Capture ◽

Carbon Dioxide Removal ◽

Stepping Stone ◽

Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage Approaches for Carbon Dioxide Removal and Reliable Sequestration

10.17226/25170 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

◽

...

Keyword(s):

Carbon Dioxide ◽

Carbon Capture ◽

Carbon Dioxide Removal ◽

The Role of BECCS in Achieving Climate Neutrality in the European Union

Energies ◽

10.3390/en14237842 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (23) ◽

pp. 7842

Author(s):

Igor Tatarewicz ◽

Michał Lewarski ◽

Sławomir Skwierz ◽

Vitaliy Krupin ◽

Robert Jeszke ◽

...

Keyword(s):

European Union ◽

Carbon Capture ◽

Large Scale ◽

Electricity Production ◽

The European Union ◽

Climate Neutrality ◽

And Storage ◽

The Eu

The achievement of climate neutrality in the European Union by 2050 will not be possible solely through a reduction in fossil fuels and the development of energy generation from renewable sources. Large-scale implementation of various technologies is necessary, including bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), carbon capture and storage (CCS), and carbon capture and utilisation (CCU), as well as industrial electrification, the use of hydrogen, the expansion of electromobility, low-emission agricultural practices, and afforestation. This research is devoted to an analysis of BECCS as a negative emissions technology (NET) and the assessment of its implementation impact upon the possibility of achieving climate neutrality in the EU. The modelling approach utilises tools developed within the LIFE Climate CAKE PL project and includes the MEESA energy model and the d-PLACE CGE economic model. This article identifies the scope of the required investment in generation capacity and the amount of electricity production from BECCS necessary to meet the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets in the EU, examining the technology’s impact on the overall system costs and marginal abatement costs (MACs). The modelling results confirm the key role of BECCS technology in achieving EU climate goals by 2050.

Assessing the Role of Carbon Capture and Storage in Mitigation Pathways of Developing Economies

Energies ◽

10.3390/en14071879 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (7) ◽

pp. 1879

Author(s):

Panagiotis Fragkos

Keyword(s):

Energy Demand ◽

Carbon Capture ◽

Large Scale ◽

Developing Economies ◽

Scale Up ◽

Scale Transformation ◽

Global Energy ◽

The Paris Agreement has set out ambitious climate goals aiming to keep global warming well-below 2 °C by 2100. This requires a large-scale transformation of the global energy system based on the uptake of several technological options to reduce drastically emissions, including expansion of renewable energy, energy efficiency improvements, and fuel switch towards low-carbon energy carriers. The current study explores the role of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) as a mitigation option, which provides a dispatchable source for carbon-free production of electricity and can also be used to decarbonise industrial processes. In the last decade, limited technology progress and slow deployment of CCS technologies worldwide have increased the concerns about the feasibility and potential for massive scale-up of CCS required for deep decarbonisation. The current study uses the state-of-the-art PROMETHEUS global energy demand and supply system model to examine the role and impacts of CCS deployment in a global decarbonisation context. By developing contrasted decarbonisation scenarios, the analysis illustrates that CCS deployment might bring about various economic and climate benefits for developing economies, in the form of reduced emissions, lower mitigation costs, ensuring the cost efficient integration of renewables, limiting stranded fossil fuel assets, and alleviating the negative distributional impacts of cost-optimal policies for developing economies.

The need for a Net Zero Principles Framework to support public policy at local, regional and national levels

Local Economy The Journal of the Local Economy Policy Unit ◽

10.1177/0269094220984742 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 35 (7) ◽

pp. 627-634

Author(s):

Karen Turner ◽

Antonios Katris ◽

Julia Race

Keyword(s):

Public Policy ◽

Carbon Capture ◽

Economic Returns ◽

Net Zero ◽

Local Areas ◽

Zero Carbon ◽

Near Term ◽

And Storage ◽

Do So

Many nations have committed to midcentury net zero carbon emissions targets in line with the 2015 Paris Agreement. These require systemic transition in how people live and do business in different local areas and regions within nations. Indeed, in recognition of the climate challenge, many regional and city authorities have set their own net zero targets. What is missing is a grounded principles framework to support what will inevitably be a range of broader public policy actions, which must in turn consider pathways that are not only technically, but economically, socially and politically feasible. Here, we attempt to stimulate discussion on this issue. We do so by making an initial proposition around a set of generic questions that should challenge any decarbonisation action, using the example of carbon capture and storage to illustrate the importance and complexity of ensuring feasibility of actions in a political economy arena. We argue that this gives rise to five fundamental ‘Net Zero Principles’ around understanding of who really pays and gains, identifying pathways that deliver growing and equitable prosperity, some of which can deliver near-term economic returns, while avoiding outcomes that simply involve ‘off-shoring’ of emissions, jobs and gross domestic product.

The Role of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Technologies in a Net-Zero Carbon Future

10.3389/978-2-88971-585-5 ◽

2021 ◽

Keyword(s):

Carbon Capture ◽

Net Zero ◽

Zero Carbon ◽

Ccs Technologies ◽

Study on Dispersion of Carbon Dioxide over the Shrubbery Region

Frontiers in Energy Research ◽

10.3389/fenrg.2021.695224 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

Author(s):

Wang Huiru ◽

You Zhanping ◽

Mo Fan ◽

Liu Bin ◽

Han Peng

Keyword(s):

Carbon Dioxide ◽

Carbon Capture ◽

Dispersion Pattern ◽

Buried Pipeline ◽

Dynamic Impact ◽

Coverage Area ◽

Computational Fluid Dynamics Cfd ◽

And Storage ◽

Terrain Features

In the carbon capture and storage (CCS) infrastructure, the risk of a high-pressure buried pipeline rupture possibly leads to catastrophic accidents due to the release of tremendous amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2). Therefore, a comprehensive understanding of the effects of CO2 dispersion pattern after release from CCS facilities is essential to allow the appropriate safety precautions to be taken. Due to variations in topography above the pipeline, the pattern of CO2 dispersion tends to be affected by the real terrain features, such as trees and hills. However, in most previous studies, the dynamic impact of trees on the wind field was often approximated to linear treatment or even ignored. In this article, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was proposed to predict CO2 dispersion over shrubbery areas. The shrubs were regarded as a kind of porous media, and the model was validated against the results from experiment. It was found that shrubbery affected the flow field near the ground, enhancing the lateral dispersion of CO2. Compared with that of the shrub-free terrain, the coverage area of the three shrub terrains at 60 s increased by 8.1 times, 6.7 times, and 9.1 times, respectively. The influence of shrub height and porosity on CO2 dispersion is nonlinear. This research provides reliable data for the risk assessment of CCS.