🚨 Breaking: Germany finally legalises CO2 transport and storage 🚨

🇩🇪 Today is the big day: a long time in the making, the German Bundestag finally amended its 2012 law which effectively banned the storage of CO2 (KSpG) with a new law allowing storage, but also transport of CO2 (KSpTG).

🚛 This is huge news, as it creates the foundation for Germany’s ambitious plans to become a leader in carbon management - CCS, CCU, and CDR - and also a key CO2 transit country in Europe.

🏗️ It also attached “overriding public interest” to the construction of CO2 infrastructure, streamlining future permitting.

🤔 So what about the Länder, the 16 Regions, which hold huge power in federal Germany?

◾ For off-shore storage, competence lies fully with the federal government.

◾ For on-shore storage, Länder must explicitly opt in which several already said they are looking into.

❌ Finally, it is worth mentioning that CO2 from coal (“Coal CCS”) is explicitly banned in the KSpTG.

❗ Note: the law still has to be approved by the Bundesrat on the 21st of November, although this seems like a pure formality at this point. The big step has been taken.

🥴 And for those who want a real tongue twister, the full name of this new law - staying true to German tradition of unpronounceable words - is Kohlendioxid-Speicherung-und-Transport-Gesetz (KSpTG).

👟 My take: today marks a step-change for Germany, a country that has been burnt by the debate around the transport and storage of nuclear waste. This - finally - lays the regulatory foundation for dozens of large-scale CCS and CDR projects which rely on transporting their CO2 all the way to the North Sea.

👏 Congrats to everyone involved - including the Deutscher Verband für negative Emissionen e.V. (DVNE) - and let’s start building that CO2 infrastructure next!

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