According to a draft plan, the European Union (EU) and Norway have proposed to work together to develop infrastructure for CO2 emissions capture and storage and scale up renewable hydrogen production in Europe.
The plan will be announced at a summit of European country leaders and energy ministers in Ostend, Belgium, focusing on making the North Sea an engine of offshore renewable energy and clean industrial technologies. In addition, the EU and Norway plan to develop European market rules and infrastructure to capture, transport, use and store CO2 emissions.
The draft stated that “both sides intend to work together to bring this key technology to markets to foster the decarbonisation of hard-to-abate industrial sectors.” Similarly, the draft signalled a similar intent to team up on hydrogen produced from renewable energy. It stated that “both sides intend to intensify their cooperation to foster renewable hydrogen production in Europe.”
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) has gained momentum recently as countries race to meet climate goals, with Norwegian firms behind some of the main projects. For example, Equinor, Norway’s state-owned company, has captured and stored CO2 emissions from the Sleipner gas field since the 1990s. Its upcoming projects include Northern Lights, a joint venture to capture CO2 emissions from industrial facilities and inject up to 1.5 million tonnes per year of CO2 into undersea storage near the Troll gas field from next year.
The draft statement also highlighted that Norway and the EU would intensify their cooperation to protect the Arctic. However, the document did not mention planned cooperation between the two sides on fossil fuels. Norway piped 117 billion cubic metres of gas to the EU and Britain in 2022, making it Europe’s largest gas supplier after Russia slashed deliveries last year.
Source: Reuters