Multiple industry organizations have underscored the importance of Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) technologies by signing the Oslo Declaration.
This collective commitment aims to advance CCUS technologies as crucial tools for achieving climate neutrality by 2050. The declaration outlines five key policy actions to ensure the realization of CCUS projects, such as the Ghent Carbon Hub, and low-carbon hydrogen initiatives like H2BE. These actions emphasize the role of CCUS in reducing Belgium’s CO2 emissions, marking a pivotal moment in the country’s environmental strategy.
5 key actions
An Intra-Belgian Industrial Deal
Collaboration between all policy levels is crucial to developing cost-effective infrastructure in the industrial CCUS value chain and ensuring a transregional and transnational interoperable CO2 infrastructure based on harmonized and balanced quality requirements agreed upon by the CCUS value chain.
A New Spirit of Law-Making
EU, national, and regional regulatory frameworks should facilitate technology-neutral and market-based industrial decarbonization. Overly prescriptive regulatory frameworks risk imposing inefficient decarbonization pathways by mandating specific technologies, which can harm Europe’s international competitiveness. Industry should have the freedom to choose its decarbonization pathway.
De-Risking Mechanisms to Support Early Movers in the CCUS Value Chain
OPEX and CAPEX based support mechanisms, such as well-designed Contracts for Difference (CFDs), are needed to kickstart industrial CCUS and low-carbon fuels.
Additionally, sufficient funding for CO2 infrastructure under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) is crucial. Emitters need viable options for transporting and storing their CO2 to make final investment decisions on CCUS-enabled decarbonization projects.
Role of Molecules in Future Energy System
Flexible energy availability in an integrated energy system will be crucial to covering expected energy consumption reliably by 2050. Given the non-continuous nature of renewable energy generation, both industrial and power plants that operate on low-carbon molecules can form an essential complement to a secure energy system.
North Sea Cooperation
Structural coordination and cooperation among countries around the North Sea are necessary to untap the full potential of CCUS. Collaboration between EU and non-EU countries around the North Sea is crucial to developing cross-border interoperable CCUS infrastructure and connecting CO2 sources with sinks economically.
North Sea Port also signed the Oslo Declaration, together with large industrial stakeholders like ArcelorMittal Belgium, ENGIE, Equinor, Fluxys, Air Liquide, TotalEnergies and others.
Furthermore, in collaboration with Fluxys, Port of Antwerp-Bruges is developing a CO2 compression plant in Zeebrugge. This facility will handle captured CO2 from Belgian and German industries, transporting it via the C-grid pipeline network to Zeebrugge for compression. The CO2 will then be transported through an undersea pipeline for permanent storage in Norway’s former oil and gas reservoirs.
