As part of the announced energy and climate change package which was adopted on 10 January and which contains measures to establish a new energy policy for Europe to combat climate change and boost the EU’s energy security and competitiveness, the European Commission is now working on a legislative proposal to establish a regulatory framework for the capture of carbon dioxide and its geological storage, often referred to as carbon capture and storage (CCS).

The CCS technology, sometimes also referred to as carbon sequestration, separates carbon dioxide from gases produced by large stationary power plants, compresses the CO2 and then transports it to a location where it can be stored in geological formations such as oil and gas fields. In this way, it allows for enhanced recovery of oil from ageing fields, prolonging their life duration.

Given that according to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, CCS could remove 80 to 90 per cent of CO2 emissions from power plants, it is viewed by the commission as a potentially important technology to fight climate change and could reduce the costs of stabilising the CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere by up to 30 per cent. Despite laying particular emphasis on green energies, the commission’s energy and climate-change package does not neglect the importance of traditional sources of energy within the energy make-up, as long as these can be made clean particularly given that coal and gas provide 50 per cent of the EU’s electricity supply and will inevitably remain an important part of its energy mix.

It therefore gives particular importance to CCS in creating a low CO2 fossil fuel future despite environmental groups fearing that CCS will prolong the world’s dependence on oil and divert investments from renewable energy. Other critics have also argued that since the technology is still in the development stage, there is no proof that CO2 can be stored for long periods and there could be risks of leakage.

The European Commission is therefore consulting European citizens and other stakeholders on the benefits and challenges of CCS and how the technology relates to other energy and greenhouse gas mitigation options. The views of the respondents will be considered in the preparation of the legislative proposal to regulate CCS, planned for the end of 2007.

The consultation process, which began on 19 February, remains open till 16 April and one can access the related questionnaire on http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/

ipm/forms/dispatch?form=CCS.

More information is available from Forum Malta fl-Ewropa, telephone 2590-9101 or e-mail: [email protected].

Ronald Mizzi is research analyst at Forum Malta fl-Ewropa

[email protected]