Reluctant EU states under pressure to realise CO2 storage

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Sourced From EurActiv

Calls for CO2 capture and storage technology to be developed, mandated by a future emissions performance standard for power plants, are growing louder. But most EU countries have not yet signalled their support.

The UK, France and the Netherlands, potentially supported by the Czech Republic and Spain, are backing a financing scheme that would essentially divert funds from a ‘new entrants reserve’ under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (see EurActiv Links Dossier) to support the construction of carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstration plants.

But none of the remaining 22 EU member states have come out in support of the plan, championed by UK Liberal MEP Chris Davies and supported by Irish Christian Democrat MEP Avril Doyle, Parliament’s rapporteur on a proposal to revise the EU ETS.

The reluctance is frustrating Davies, who hopes to clinch a deal on CCS financing before the end of the year as part of a wider deal on the EU’s climate and energy package.

It remains to be seen whether a new study by the International Energy Agency (IEA) will bring about a shift in national positions on the issue. While the IEA admits that CCS is still “a bit too expensive,” the Paris-based agency argues that it is “the only low carbon solution for a number of sectors,” according to IEA Senior Analyst Sankar Bhattacharya, speaking in Brussels on 7 November during his presentation of the study.

California dreaming?

Davies, as Parliament’s rapporteur on a proposal for an EU legal framework governing CCS, is also calling for the introduction of a ceiling on the amount of CO2 EU power plants may emit beyond 2015. Such a regulation would have a direct impact on Europe’s existing and planned coal-fired power plants, the largest emitters of CO2.

The MEP and supporters of such an emissions performance standard (EPS), which has been put in place in California, say the move is a necessary piece of the CCS jigsaw, since industry will otherwise have no incentive to develop the costly technology. A new GlobeScan survey (PDF), sponsored by the European Climate Foundation, also found a majority of climate experts in favour of an EPS.

But the EU’s electricity industry, represented in Brussels by Eurelectric, has already voiced its opposition to the idea.

While Eurelectric supports the development of CCS, including through the use of the EU ETS new entrants reserve, the body is “strongly opposed” to an EPS on the grounds that it would undermine the security of the EU’s electricity supply.

“Should such a de facto ban on new coal investment be imposed, this would significantly restrict the options for new power plants to meet Europe’s growing capacity needs and hamper the development of the more energy-efficient combustion technologies which are needed to make CCS viable,” Eurelectric said in a recent letter to MEPs.

The issue is likely to remain a hot topic in 2009, as EU legislators are expected to hammer out a revision of a 1996 law governing pollution levels of EU industrial installations: the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Directive.