The European Union has drawn up plans to capture and store hundreds of millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions by 2050 to ensure its industry can meet Europe's climate change targets, the draft document shows.
Achieving the EU's goal of net zero emissions by 2050 will require companies to switch to green energy and change their production methods.
For sectors that do not have the technology to do this, their carbon dioxide emissions will need to be captured, to avoid them entering the atmosphere and fueling global warming.
By 2050, the EU will have to capture up to 450 million tons of carbon dioxide per year, according to the European Commission's draft plan, seen by Reuters.
"By the same date, most of the remaining emissions from EU industry will have to be captured and stored, especially from the cement and chemical sectors," the draft states.
In 2022, the EU emitted 3,6 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, according to official data.
Most of the carbon dioxide captured by 2050 would be permanently stored underground. Some could be used in industrial processes such as chemical production.
The draft states that 100 million tons of carbon dioxide captured by 2050 will be in the energy sector, from fossil-fueled power plants that emit carbon dioxide, or from "biogenic" sources such as organic waste.
The EU would have to directly capture up to 200 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to offset some remaining emissions in 2050, the draft states.
Chris Davies, campaign director of the CCS Europe group, said the lack of political support had forced the EU to make up for lost time by developing the technology. The EU has no operational projects for carbon dioxide storage.
The European Commission refused to comment on the draft document, reported Bloomberg News.
The draft states that the construction of carbon capture and storage infrastructure in this decade will require both EU and member state funds.
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