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Description
The project focuses on the challenge of achieving the deep reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across all sectors of the European economy by 2050 through deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies.
Recent advances in several key areas allow significant GHG cuts but are not sufficient to reach deep decarbonisation consistent with Paris Agreement. CCS deployment may reduce industrial emissions, provide low-carbon industrial heat and improve the security of electricity supply by complementing short-term energy storage. At the moment, the topic is not present in the mainstream debate on climate policy in the CEE countries.
We aim to renew the discussion on the long-term deployment of CCS in the CEE region, leading to the new policies and joint projects. It is expected that building evidence based consensus among key stakeholders will pave the way to implement concrete policies and ventures.
The project covers Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Romania, Baltic states and Ukraine with the support of expertise partner from Norway. The 3 phases are envisioned:
- Assessment of current state and potential of technological options, as well as European policy landscape and national contexts;
- Development of national roadmaps as well as regional cooperation roadmap for CCS deployment in the CEE region;
- Supporting implementation of the roadmaps through networking and capacity building events.
The project is designed to provide the basis for supporting initiatives and policy-based international collaboration beyond the funding period. The dedicated platform will be set up based on the project consortium during the third phase of the project. Its members will seek to expand its geographical coverage, utilising existing partnerships and future funding opportunities on European and national levels.
Summary of project results
The main challenge this project is addressing is climate change resulting from GHG emissions caused by economic activities, including industry representing ca. 20% share of emissions in the EU. The pace of decarbonisation is slower than required to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. Given this critical stage, there is a need for deployment of decarbonisation technologies at unprecedented scale. Among these technologies is CCS. CCS enables a large-scale and cost-competitive (relative to other technological paths) emissions reduction in the so called hard-to-abate, carbon-intensive industries. With the right conditions, CCS could also help the region achieve negative emissions by capturing and storing atmospheric and biogenic carbon dioxide. Put simply, CCS is essential for Central and Eastern Europe to achieve climate-neutrality by 2050, while maintaining the region’s industrial base. The project was needed in order to bring CCS technology to the centre of the decarbonisation discussions in CEE Its objective was to identify and leverage both individual and collective potential of CEE countries for long-term deployment of this technology. The main challenge to the project was that despite endorsements by the European Commissions, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the International Energy Agency (IEA), CCS has been often overlooked or even dismissed as a viable decarbonisation tool due to the lack of knowledge about its potential or based on its past implementation failures and misconceptions about its environmental impact. As a policy topic, it has also competed for the attention of policy-makers in countries where public administration is understaffed and overburdened. Potential lack of action by CEE countries to deploy CCS poses a risk that CEE countries would not meet their climate targets and that their industrial sectors would lag behind in terms of GHG emission reduction, which in turn will cost them their competitiveness as carbon-intensive production becomes too expensive (costs of emissions, mainly costs of compliance with EU ETS, are increasingly factored in the production costs). This in turn may lead to industry shutdowns, job losses, and losses of income from industrial economic activities.
Throughout the project, documents assessing current state and potential for CCS deployment in each partner country; CCS roadmaps; as well as summaries of the project''s results were delivered.
Partners'' activities involved organising two workshops per country focusing on developing concrete project ideas and identifying transnational cooperation opportunities.
The project was successful in raising awareness of CCS in CEE countries. Stakeholders have participated in national as well as international CCS4CEE events and efforts (workshops and seminars, study trip to Norway, regional conferences). The project contributed to an improved awareness of EU policies and support mechanisms relevant to CCS, improved understanding of CCS technological aspects, as well as policy and value chain aspects, gained through events and study trip to Norway, and interactions with project developers and policy makers from other countries. Furthermore, the project fostered new contacts and collaboration between stakeholders, both domestically and internationally.
Summary of bilateral results
Having donor project partner has no influence on administartive/management side but the benefits of having them as a partner was their technology and policy expertise, which led to improved knowledge and understanding of CCS on the part of the partner, and the opportunity to visit and network with Norwegian organisations and companies.