by Olivia Wynkoop and Maren Krämer
The European Commission Charlemagne building in Brussels – one of the main decision-making settings © Maren Krämer
Storing CO2 under the Earth instead of polluting the air we breathe – this is the concept of the Kairos@C project in the Port of Antwerp, Belgium. Developed by chemical companies Air Liquide and BASF, the project recently recieved €360 billion of the €1.1 billion EU Innovation Fund grants handed to seven large-scale climate projects across Europe.
It aims to create the first and largest cross-border carbon capture and storage (CCS) value chain to capture, liquify, ship, and permanently store CO2.
Out of seven large-scale projects that received funding, four are dealing with carbon management technologies. CCS is considered to play a big role in the EU’s ambitious goal to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.
According to David Yormesor from the European Investment Bank, the Innovation Fund is implemented by the European Commission with the assistance of the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA), who selected the projects out of 300 applicants. Criteria include the project’s ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the degree of innovation and the project maturity. Potential for Scalability and cost-effectiveness are also considered
EU officials aren’t the only ones included in decisions regarding climate policy, says the EU Watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO). One report states that lobbyists from the fossil fuel industry regularly meet with decision-makers. CEO further states that “like the tobacco industry was excluded from lobbying on health policy, the fossil fuel industry’s lobbying on climate and energy policy must be curbed.”
In the Commission headquarters in Brussels, countries come together to make EU related decisions. Watchdogs like the Corporate Europe Observatory investigate how much influence industrial lobbies have on the decision-making © Maren Krämer
The World Resources Institute (WRI) is dealing with the implementation and regulation of CCS. While they agree that the industry should not have free reign to set the agenda, they also underline that the companies play a significant role in the process. “Companies likely to deploy this are gonna be companies that have been traditionally engaged in the production of energy or in industrial products”, explains Karl Hausker, Senior Fellow in WRI’s Climate Program. “It’s not necessarily a bad thing that those companies continue to be involved more; it is more likely that they have the expertise that will be needed.”
Nevertheless, other stakeholders can not be forgotten. According to Zachary Byrum, WRI Research Analyst for Climate, there is a risk of perpetuating existing harms if you put carbon capture on old coal plants that are near marginalized or distressed communities. “One thing that we strongly advocate for – and we don’t have all the answers for yet – is how to engage communities and bring them into the decision making process early and often; to see if this technology is appropriate for that facility and if it’s something they want, something that can bring economic benefits.”
The Spokesperson of the Directorate-General Climate Action and other EU officials did not respond to interview requests before publication.
To find out more about the future use of CCS in the EU, read this article: https://eunews.mediajungle.dk/2022/05/05/carbon-capture-storage-the-eu-commissions-latest-investment-in-the-future-of-climate/