EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 70/85

(2004/C 70 E/087)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2329/03

by Piia-Noora Kauppi (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(16 July 2003)

Subject: Incorporation of carbon sequestration techniques into the emissions trading directive

The United States, the European Union and 13 other countries have recently established an international forum to tackle greenhouse gas emissions, mainly by promoting a technology to slow rising levels of CO2 in the atmosphere. This initiative, called the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum, is an attempt to increase international cooperation to reduce global emissions of greenhouse gases.

The European Parliament and the Council of Ministers have recently found a compromise in the second parliamentary reading on the greenhouse gas emissions trading directive. The compromise asks the European Commission to review the directive after 2006 and come back with revision proposals.

What role does the European Commission give to carbon sequestration techniques? Could this technology be merged into the EU emissions trading regime? Does the European Commission see any role for carbon sequestration techniques as part of the EU policy to reach the Kyoto targets?

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(16 September 2003)

The inaugural meeting of the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF) took place on 23 to 25 June 2003 in Washington, D.C. The main aim of the Forum is to stimulate international co-operation on research into carbon sequestration technologies by capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) at source from fossil fuels and storing it in an environmental safe manner deep underground.

The Union committed itself in Kyoto to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 8 % in the 2008-2012 period compared to 1990 levels, mainly through measures focused on energy efficiency and renewables. Since carbon sequestration is at the research phase the Union does not envisage it playing a significant role in the achievement of the 2008-2012 Kyoto target. However, emissions world-wide need to be reduced in the post 2012 period by more than 50 % if climate change is to be stabilised and reversed. Carbon sequestration technology may have the potential to contribute to this process by capturing CO2 and storing it underground.

For CO2 storage underground to be an effective way of limiting CO2 emissions, the CO2 must be stored safely for several hundreds or thousands of years. CO2 storage also needs to have low environmental impact, acceptable cost, conform to national and international legal requirements, and in addition be socially and politically acceptable. The public needs to be convinced as with other disposals of waste that CO2 storage does not pose any significant risk. There is also the need to resolve a number of legal and regulatory issues.

The newly agreed Directive (1) establishing a scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading within the Community and amending Council Directive 96/61/EC (2), defines emissions as ‘the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere from sources in an installation’. Therefore, the Directive has a legal framework which is open to the possibility of using carbon sequestration since greenhouse gases would not be released if they were sequestered. This approach is in line with the Directive's aim to encourage innovation to reduce emissions, rather than specify particular technologies to be used.

However, as stated above, carbon sequestration technologies are still at the research phase and so the guidelines for monitoring and reporting emissions to be adopted in autumn 2003 under Article 14 of the Directive will not provide for operators to use such technologies to count as a reduction in emissions. If on-going research can demonstrate that CO2 can be stored in a safe and environmentally acceptable manner underground without CO2 being released into the atmosphere at any point in time, and appropriate standards such as methodology agreed by the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPCC) were established for storage, then the guidelines for monitoring and reporting could be amended accordingly.

(1) http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/climat/030723provisionaltext.pdf

(2) Council Directive 96/61/EC of 24 September 1996 concerning integrated pollution prevention and control, OJ L 257, 10.10.1996.