🇪🇺 DACCS only in the EU Emission Trading System? Really?

📄 Three more EU Parliament positions on the EU ETS just came in through Contexte: Renew, S&D, and the Greens. 

⚠️ There is a lot to highlight, some favourable (Renew), and most definitely unfavourable. What really stands out is that two of them (S&D and Greens) suggest only allowing DACCS in the ETS.

🤔 No surprise here: I am a big DACCS fan. I genuinely think it will be the most relevant CDR approach at net-zero. But do I think we can do megatons of it in Europe in a few years time? Of course not! 

📊 How much DACCS has been delivered in the EU as of today: 0. What is the installed capacity? Maybe a few kilotons. And high prices of €500-1,000/t. Scaling DACCS to megatons with the current (fairly dirty) grid in Europe would not be a good idea.

🏭 The two parties are even suggesting to delete the clause that would allow ETS operators with biogenic emissions doing CCS to count those removals towards their obligations.

🔎 To make matters worse, the S&D and Greens also aim to reduce the CDR ambition from 250Mt to up to 100Mt and 75Mt respectively. This would de facto mean that removals would be less than 2% of emissions in the EU ETS in the 2030s.

🔵 Renew is a beacon of hope here: they suggest increasing it to 300Mt, they keep BioCCS and at least leave the door open to a future inclusion of biochar carbon removal (BCR). And - of course - we have the Rapporteur’s Peter Liese’s (EPP) draft which keeps the 250Mt, adds funding, and includes BCR at 20%.

📈 Quick note on BioCCS: there is a reason the Commission’s proposal features it so prominently: it is - by far - the most promising removals technology in Europe, with potential scale in the dozens or even hundreds of megatons, half the cost of DACCS already, and a real comparative advantage for the EU given our mature sustainable biomass legislation. It has to be in there.

🤏 So, overall, really a mixed bag. Some of this I expected, but I am still surprised by the S&D in particular. The narrowing down to DACCS is a strange move to say the least.

🏛️ Really curious how the negotiations in the Parliament’s ENVI Committee will unfold. 

👇 What is your take? Does my perspective resonate or not?

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