REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on Implementation of Directive 2009/31/EC on the Geological Storage of Carbon Dioxide
Date: 2019-10-31
Institutions: Directorate-General for Climate Action, European Commission
Subjects: EU Member State, EU environmental policy, application of EU law, carbon capture and storage, energy storage, environmental impact, greenhouse gas, innovation, reduction of gas emissions

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 31.10.2019  COM(2019) 566 final  REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on Implementation of Directive 2009/31/EC on the Geological Storage of Carbon Dioxide  
 
 
1. 

INTRODUCTION 

Directive  2009/31/EC  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  on  the  geological 
storage  of  carbon  dioxide1  (so-called  Carbon  Capture  and  Storage  Directive  –  hereinafter 
‘CCS  Directive’)  establishes  a  legal  framework  for  the  environmentally  safe  geological 
storage of carbon dioxide (CO2). The CCS Directive aims to ensure that there is no significant 
risk of leakage of CO2 or damage to  health or the environment,  and to  prevent  any  adverse 
effects on the security of the transport network or storage sites.  

This report constitutes the third CCS Directive implementation report covering the period of 
May 2016 - April 2019. It covers the progress since the second implementation report2. This 
report  is  based  on  the  reports  submitted  by  Member  States  and  Norway  in  accordance  with 
Article  27  of  the  CCS  Directive.  Twenty  two  countries3  submitted  reports  in  time  to  be 
considered in this report. 

2. 

2.1. 

SPECIFIC IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES IN THE MEMBER STATES 

Assessment of storage capacity and selection of storage sites  

Article  4(2)  of  the  CCS  Directive  requires  that  those  Member  States  that  intend  to  allow 
storage on their territory have to carry out assessments of the available storage capacity. The 
Netherlands estimates a theoretical storage capacity of approximately 1.7Gt in the North Sea, 
primarily  in  depleted  gas  fields.  A  further,  more  in-depth  research  into  the  suitability  of 
specific  sites  will  be  undertaken  in  the  future.  The  NORDICCS  project  reported  storage 
capacity  in  Denmark  in  saline  aquifers  of  22GtCO2  and  of  2Gt  in  hydrocarbon  fields. 
Germany has estimated a storage capacity in selected major gas fields of approximately 75Gt 
CO2  and  between  20  and  115Gt  CO2  in  saline  aquifers.  80%  of  the  aquifers  are  situated  in 
States that ban storage.  

Few  countries  have  determined  new  areas  from  which  storage  sites  may  or  may  not  be 
selected  pursuant  Article  4(1).  Norway  has  identified  possible  CO2  storage  sites  on  the 
Norwegian shelf and published a compiled atlas of these sites. Czech Republic has considered 
one storage site LBr-1 for a pilot CCS project located in the south-east of the country.  

2.2. 

Exploration and storage permits applications 

An application for two storage permits and one  update of a permit  are under preparation as 
part of the Dutch CCS Porthos project. Norway has awarded an exploration permit for CO2 
storage on the Norwegian Continental Shelf in January 2019. One application for exploration 
permit has been filed in Andalucia, Spain. 

2.3. 

Feasibility for CCS retrofitting  

Article  33  of  the  CCS  Directive  requires  that  when  applying  for  license,  operators  have  to 
assess the technical and economic feasibility of carbon capture,  transport and storage.  If the 

1  Directive  2009/31/EC  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  on  the  geological  storage  of  carbon  dioxide  and 
amending Council Directive 85/337/EEC, European Parliament and Council Directives 2000/60/EC, 2001/80/EC, 2004/35/EC, 
2006/12/EC, 2008/1/EC and Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006, OJ L 140, 5.6.2009, p. 114-135 
2  COM(2017)37,  Report  from  the  Commission  to  the  European  Parliament  and  the  Council  on  the  Implementation  of 
Directive 2009/31/EC on the geological storage of carbon dioxide 
3 Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, 
the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden. 

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assessment  is  positive,  space  on  the  installation  site  must  be  set  aside  for  the  equipment 
necessary to capture and compress CO2. 

Such  assessments  were  carried  out  in  Estonia  (one),  France  (one),  Germany  (six),  Romania 
(six) and Poland (eight). The assessments find that CCS is not economically feasible. Some 
further difficulties were  found for some of the plants  – in  Estonia geological  conditions  are 
considered unfavourable, while in Germany plants do not have access to suitable storage sites. 

Despite  low  feasibility  level  in  the  assessments,  most  of  the  power  plants  (e.g  in  Poland, 
Estonia, Germany) are setting aside land for the installation of CO2 capture equipment.  

In Norway, any new gas fired power plants has to have CO2 capture and storage from the start 
of operation of the plant. Some of the 30 Swedish installations with an input power of over 
300MW  are  currently  investigating  the  possibility  of  CCS  and  are  conducting  preliminary 
studies.  

2.4. 

National  programmes  and  research  projects  with  relevance  to  the  CCS 
Directive 

Research activities to advance the technology and knowledge of CO2  storage are ongoing in a 
number  of  countries  -  Czech  Republic,  Denmark,  France,  Germany,  Lithuania,  Malta, 
Netherlands,  Norway,  Romania,  Poland,  Portugal,  Spain  and  Sweden  with  national  support, 
EU funding and Norway Grants. Some countries participate in ERA-NET ACT (Accelerating 
CCS  Technology)  that  brings  together  different  projects  supported  jointly  by  funds  from 
Germany,  Greece,  France,  the  Netherlands,  Norway,  Romania,  Spain,  UK,  as  well  as 
Switzerland,  Turkey  and  the  United  States.  Ireland  reported  that  CCS  Policy  and  Project 
Feasibility Steering Group has been established to work on the policy developments of CCS 
and  assess  the  feasibility  of  future  projects  in  the  country.  In  addition,  9  Member  States 
(Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the 
UK), Norway  and Turkey  have agreed to  coordinate their research and innovation  activities 
on  carbon  capture,  utilisation  and  storage  in  the  frame  of  the  European  Strategic  Energy 
Technology Plan (SET Plan). 

2.5. 

CO2 transport and storage networks 

The  North  Sea  Basin  Task  Force  with  the  UK,  the  Netherlands,  Norway,  Germany  and 
Belgium  and  the  Baltic  Sea  Region  CCS  network  with  Estonia,  Germany,  Finland,  Norway 
and  Sweden  remain  two  main  CCS  regional  networks  that  work  to  develop  common, 
transboundary solutions for the transport and geological storage of CO2. These networks may 
facilitate  the  transparent  and  non-discriminatory  access  to  CO2  transport  networks  and  CO2 
storage  sites  for  operators  in  Member  States  where  there  is  no  possibility  of  underground 
storage. The cooperation with Member States bordering the North Sea has been reported also 
under  the  projects  of  common  interest  (PCIs).  Sweden  is  considering  future  cooperation 
primarily  with  Norway  on  storage  as  there  is  a number  of  private  companies  interested  and 
currently investigating such an opportunity. CO2 hubs are under development in Fos-sur-Mer, 
le Havre and Dunkerque in France. 

3. 

CONCLUSIONS  

The provisions of the CCS Directive have been correctly applied across the reporting period 
in the EU Member States, which have submitted reports to the Commission by 30 June 2019.  

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Despite the continuous lack of positive assessment for technical and economic feasibility for 
CCS  retrofitting,  power  plants  are  nevertheless  setting  aside  land  should  the  conditions 
change in the future. 

A considerable number of Member States and Norway continue to support or plan to support 
in  the  near  future,  through  their  national  programmes  or  funds,  research  and  demonstration 
activities  on  CCS.  Furthermore,  many  countries  are  involved  in  a  number  of  European 
research and collaborative projects. 

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