Source: European Parliament
The Commission is committed to ensuring that there are sufficient incentives for the capture, storage, and utilisation of biogenic carbon dioxide.
The Competitiveness Compass for the EU[1] underlines that i ncentives will be developed to build a business case for permanent carbon removals to compensate for residual emissions from hard to abate sectors. The industrial carbon management Strategy[2] identified several measures to better support their development.
This includes supporting research and innovation through various EU funding mechanisms, such as the Innovation Fund[3] and Horizon Europe[4], as well as regulatory measures to better recognise their potential climate benefits.
The EU Innovation Fund, established with revenue generated by the EU Emission Trading System (ETS), already supports carbon capture and storage projects in the order of approximately 10 million tonnes of CO2 per year becoming operational as early as 2027.
The European Commission is also exploring options to address the utilisation of biogenic CO2 in place of fossil carbon in more sustainable products.
By end of 2025, the Commission intends to adopt the methodologies for the certification of permanent carbon removal activities capturing biogenic CO2 with permanent storage. This is an important milestone for the integration of these activities in climate policies.
The legislative proposal in 2026 will look at how permanent negative emissions could be accounted for and how they could be covered by emissions trading, if appropriate, including a clear scope and strict criteria for such coverage, and safeguards to prevent mitigation deterrence .
This proposed review will also assess the accounting of the capture and utilisation of CO2 in non-permanent products.