FuelsEurope voting recommendations to EP resolution on COP24

In view of the vote on the Resolution on COP24 at the next EP Plenary meeting on Thursday 25th October 2018, the ENVI Committee has proposed a recital (R) stating that “[...] CCS, therefore, cannot be counted upon as part of any mitigation solution and should be prevented from clouding the urgency of radically stepping up climate action [...]”.

FuelsEurope believes that recital R is unjustified, based on questionable assumptions and contradicting a widely accepted view that Carbon Capture and Storage (as well as Carbon Capture and Utilisation) technologies have an essential role in contributing to the global action against climate change, in view of eventually achieving “net zero” GHG emissions. 

In particular, recital R contradicts the findings of the last IPCC “1.5deg C” report published on 8th October 2018, in which several scenarios include CCS between the measures to reduce GHG emissions.

The key role of CCS and CCU in the energy transition is also outlined in FuelsEurope’s recently published “Vision 2050”.

Moreover, the following statement in recital R is inaccurate:

“[…] the technologies necessary for safe and efficient carbon capture and storage (CCS) remain unproven and in particular the geo-engineering involved in the creation of artificial carbon sinks is associated with risks of an unknown scale; […]”.

In fact there are 18 commercial-scale CCS projects operating worldwide today, with a further 19 in planning or construction. These are full-chain projects involving the capture, compression, transportation and safe geological storage of CO2.

FuelsEurope, therefore, recommend that:

  • A split vote is proposed on recital R to the motion resolution on 2018 UN Climate Change Conference in Katowice, Poland (COP24) [2018/2598(RSP), and,
  • Once the split vote is introduced, to vote against recital.