Across the ‘CCS network’, from academic and research institutions, to the industry and policy and decision-makers, the progress made over the last decade or so, in terms of making CCS a reality, should not be underestimated. Even in getting the general public on board, progress has been made, though admittedly rather slow, or perhaps better said, too slow. Any progress has to a large extent been due to the extensive collaborative efforts within this network. 

The idea for CCS was born in the R&D laboratories of the oil & gas industry in the mid-1990s, but it can be said that today, in 2013, it has finally become of ‘legal’ age. Becoming of legal age, however, does not presuppose any claims about maturity. 

How long that will take depends on a number of factors, including public acceptance of the technology, secured financing for demonstration projects, as well as the industry’s acceptance of the legal and regulatory framework. In terms of the latter, it is particularly important for the industry to view these frameworks as sufficiently loose enough to allow them to operate without any obstructions, yet stringent enough to provide legal certainty in an unlikely case things go wrong. 

By conducting a number of interviews with both ‘upstream’ and ‘downstream’ CCS industry representatives, this paper set out to examine how the industry has thus far come to perceive the legal and regulatory framework for CO2 storage in the EU and whether, or what barriers there remain in this respect.

Source: Carbon Capture Journal 29 Nov 2013