Carbon capture and storage in the EU

23.1.2018

Question for written answer E-000341-18
to the Commission
Rule 130
Antonio López-Istúriz White (PPE)

In 2015, 195 countries signed the Paris Agreement, undertaking to keep the increase in global temperature below 2°C with regard to pre-industrial levels. All the statistical models used in the agreement assume that, in order to achieve that objective, negative carbon emissions must be reached globally by the end of this century. That means removing more carbon from the atmosphere than we emit, capturing it, and burying it underground.

Most experts agree that the carbon capture and storage (CSS) technologies required to do that are not yet available. They are currently very expensive and only work on a small scale. The model used for the Paris Agreement, however, not only assumes the use of CSS, but also that we will be able to absorb a total of 810 billion tons of CO₂ as soon as 2100 (which is equivalent to 20 years of global emissions at the current rate).

Given the importance of CSS technologies, what is the Commission doing to foster research into and the provision of funding for CSS with a view to making it cheaper?