The Bellona Foundation organised the hearing with Chris Davies, a British liberal Member of European Parliament (MEP) and its environment committee. Davies was recently appointed as a rapporteur for the Parliament on the proposal of the European Commission for a directive on geological storage of CO₂.

The Norwegian Minister of Petroleum and Energy, Åslaug Haga, was one of the panellists at the hearing. She praised the Commission’s ambitious proposals on climate and energy.

“Norway welcomes the EU leadership in the fight against climate change,” she said.

Other panellists at the hearing included Frederic Hauge, president of The Bellona Foundation, and MEPs Rebecca Harms of the German Greens and Jerzy Buzek of the European People’s Party. A full room on a hectic day of the European Parliament testified to the increasing momentum around CCS. The debate further demonstrated that most stakeholders support safe CCS as an objective.

Consensus around CCS
“I cannot say that I am against CCS,” Harms said, but underlined her concerns that transport and storage might not be safe. Iain Wright of British Petroleum (BP) did not share her opinion.

“You say you are worried that future generations might have to deal with leaking CO₂, but I believe it is more worrying for future generations if CO₂ is emitted into the atmosphere,” Wright argued.

“Environmentalists who are not in favour of CCS do not take global warming seriously, Hauge said, and explained how CCS in power plants fuelled by biomass will be able to “suck CO₂ from the air”:

“The CO₂ that the biomass absorbs when growing can be captured through combustion and stored permanently,” Hauge explained.

Financing of demonstration plants
The discussion focussed on the financing of 10-12 full-scale demonstration plants that the EU has decided should be built by 2015. It is yet unclear how the plants will be financed. Jan Panek of the European Commission pointed to the enormous auction revenues that Member States are expected to receive from 2013 under the revised EU emission trading system. However, several participants thought the EU as such should contribute substantive amounts.

“To rely on financing by the Member States does not provide the predictability needed for such long-term investments. National governments come and go all the time. Their promises will not give industry certainty that public funding will be available when the storage of CO₂ actually starts. Funding through the EU would be more predictable,” said Hans van der Loo of Shell.

Former Polish Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek is the European Parliament rapporteur for a recent communication of the Commission on a “Strategic Energy Technology Plan” (SET-Plan). It proposes ways for the EU to help push i.a. CCS technology towards commercialisation. Mr. Buzek told the audience that he recently had proposed 10 billion euros over the EU budget through a five-year period to fund the SET-Plan and the technologies it identified. However, this would also require agreement from the Member States.

CCS directive rapporteur Davies said he wished to see the directive adopted in record time before the European elections in June 2009.

Hauge agreed that a rapid adoption was necessary.

“The European Parliament and the Council of the EU have to find rapid agreement on the proposals from the Commission,” he said.