Policy

The EU Directive 2009/31/EC establishes a legal framework for the geological storage of CO2 in the EU. It sets out requirements for the permitting, operation, monitoring, and closure of CO2 storage sites, as well as liability provisions. Member States are required to transpose the directive into national law and designate competent authorities responsible for regulating CO2 storage activities.

The Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) is the main EU instrument regulating pollutant emissions from industrial installations. The IED sets emission limit values for industrial installations across various sectors, including energy production, refining, and manufacturing. CCUS technologies can help industries comply with these emissions standards by capturing and reducing CO2 emissions from their processes.

The Industrial Carbon Management Strategy identifies a set of actions to be taken, at EU and national level, to establish a single market for CO2 in Europe and to create a more attractive environment for investments in industrial carbon management technologies.

The EU ETS is a cornerstone of EU climate policy, which places a cap on the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions from installations in sectors such as power generation, industrial production, and aviation. Installations covered by the EU ETS are required to surrender emission allowances equivalent to their emissions. In this context, CCUS projects can benefit from the EU ETS by potentially earning carbon credits through the capture and storage of CO2 emissions.

The EIA procedure guarantees environmental protection and transparency with regard to the decision-making process for several public and private projects. With its wide scope and broad purpose, the EIA ensures that environmental concerns are considered from the very beginning of new building or development projects, or their changes or extensions.

The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) aims to mirror the ETS rules for raw materials and energy carriers produced outside of Europe, and ensure to limit carbon leakage and encouraging third countries to adopt ETS-like systems. Further work is expected in the revision of the ETS to account for CCU products that do not lead to permanent binding and for the inclusion of the Waste-to-Energy sector that could lead to a further CO2 source to be used for CCU applications.

The latest revision of the Renewable Energy Directive (REDIII) sets a target for 42.5% of the final energy consumption in Europe to be renewable energy by 2030, and CCU fuels are given a dedicated role to contribute to those targets in specific sectors. In transport, the legislation makes it mandatory for 5.5% of the energy in transport to come either from advanced biofuels or RFNBOs, and it mandates for at least 1% of the total energy to come from RFNBOs alone. REDIII also allows Member States to include recycled carbon fuels meeting agreed criteria to count towards transport targets. In industry, REDIII imposes to EU Member States that at least 42% of the hydrogen used in the industry comes from RFNBOs by 2030 and 60% by 2035.

The new legislation on ReFuelEU Aviation obliges EU airports and fuel suppliers to ensure that starting from 2025 at least 2% of aviation fuels will be sustainable, with this share increasing every five years: 6% in 2030, 20% in 2035, 34% in 2040, 42% in 2045 and 70% in 2050, including via RFNBO and RCF. In addition, a specific proportion of the fuel mix (0.7% in 2030, 1.2% in 2032, 5% in 2035 and progressively reaching 35% in 2050) must comprise synthetic aviation fuels.

The recent FuelEU Maritime mandates that shipping above a gross tonnage of 5.000t will need to gradually reduce GHG emissions in the energy they use by 2% as of 2025 to 80% as of 2050 compared to 2020 levels. The new rules also set a 2% renewable fuels usage target as of 2034 if the Commission reports that in 2031 RFNBOs amount to less than 1% of fuel mix.