Distinguishing gold from oil : the EU's global carbon capture and storage partnerships

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is no silver bullet but could be a nugget of gold. It is a way to ensure that strategic industries can be both decarbonised and kept in Europe. The EU should instrumentalise the technology to become the world's carbon banking hub and setter of the global CO2 price. There is currently an opportunity to consolidate CCS innovation in Europe at the expense of Trump's America. There are however traps ahead, with CCS used to perpetuate and even accelerate the use of fossil fuels. The EU must tread carefully, ensuring that it is panning for gold, not oil. CCS should have two clear roles. First, it must ensure the survival of critical industries, especially steel, chemicals and cement. Second, it should actively remove carbon from the atmosphere to counter the disastrous consequences of climate change. This Brief proposes a framework for how these two roles should shape the EU's global partnerships on CCS. There is limited time, money and leverage available, meaning the EU needs to target its efforts to provide clear signals to partners and private companies. This Brief will cover only industrial CCS and not nature-based solutions for CCS, such as bioenergy from carbon capture and storage (BECCS). Many of these are promising, especially biochar, but their use is often limited to agricultural or waste sectors.