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Carbon capture and storage (CCS) were the words on everyone’s lips a couple of years ago, as most big oil majors began to invest heavily in the technology to support decarbonisation efforts. However, as the first large-scale projects get off the ground, greater criticism has emerged around the technology. Governments and private companies worldwide view CCS as a clear means of decarbonising hard-to-abate industries, but many scientists and industry experts are worried that the expensive technology will not be as effective as everyone had hoped.
The carbon capture and sequestration market is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 16 percent between 2024 and 2031. This growth will be driven by an increase in investments from both the public and private sectors. Sectoral growth is expected to be seen primarily in North America and Europe. Three trends that are expected to contribute to growth are advancements in direct air capture (DAC) technology, an increased focus on carbon utilisation (converting CO2 into chemicals or fuels), and the development of large-scale carbon storage hubs.
Several countries worldwide are starting to see progress in their CCS projects. In Norway, Northern Lights, a large-scale transport and storage CCS project, commenced operations in September 2024. The facility is owned in equal shares by the oil majors TotalEnergies, Equinor, and Shell. Phase 1 installations can store up to 1.5 million tons of CO2 a year. This facility contributes to TotalEnergy’s target of developing a CO2 storage capacity of over 10 million tons by the end of the decade.
The project was approved by the Norwegian government in 2020 and was supported by the EU. The aim is to transport captured carbon to bury at approximately 2,600 metres below the seabed in the Northern North Sea. The project will support the decarbonisation of European industrial operations.
In October, Norway’s government earmarked $197.3 million of its budget to complete the CCS Longship project. The Ministry of Energy plans to complete the project in 2026. The facility will capture carbon emitted from the Brevik cement factory. “With Longship, Europe’s first full-scale value chain for CO2 management will be in operation in 2025. It is inspiring to now see the results from Norway’s long-term commitment to CO2 management,” stated Norway’s Minister of Energy Terje Aasland.
Meanwhile, the U.K. government announced an investment of $28.4 billion over 25 years to support the first CCS projects in the country in October, with three-quarters of the funding to come from consumers. The U.K. Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has reduced its ambitions for how much carbon the programme will capture and store. In December 2024, it stated that its aim to capture and store 20 to 30 million tonnes of CO2 a year by 2030 was no longer achievable and it has not yet set any revised targets.
While the U.K. is following in the footsteps of several of its European neighbours by investing in large-scale CCS projects, some are not so optimistic about the investment. U.K. politicians are concerned about the government’s plan to spend billions of pounds on an “unproven” clean technology aimed at decarbonising the economy at the cost of the consumers. In February, the government’s House of Commons’ Public Accounts Committee stated concerns that the government had not effectively assessed the financial impact on households and businesses.
The chair of the Public Accounts Committee Geoffrey Clifton-Brown stated, “It is an unproven technology, certainly in this country. And we are concerned this policy is going to have a very significant effect on consumers’ and industry’s electricity bills.” This is a widely agreed-upon opinion in the scientific community, with a broad consensus that the high cost of developing largely unproven CCS projects could be better spent on deploying more renewable energy capacity. For this reason, many environmental organisations have criticised governments and companies for investing in CCS projects rather than cutting the problem at the source by investing more heavily in a shift away from fossil fuels to green alternatives.
However, the U.K. Energy Minister Ed Miliband said that while the technology is novel, it is critical for tackling climate change. Meanwhile, Stuart Jenkins, a research fellow at the University of Oxford, stressed that while there are no commercially operational CCS projects in the U.K. at present, there are 45 commercial facilities already operating globally capturing around 50 million tonnes of CO2. In addition, there is a pipeline of around another 700 projects globally, according to the International Energy Agency.
It is still uncertain what direction the world will take when it comes to CCS technology. While some believe money may be better invested in proven renewable energy projects to cut carbon at the source, others view the development of the world’s CCS capacity as key to cutting emissions in the mid-term. As more commercial-scale CCS projects come online over the next decade, it will paint a better picture of the industry’s outlook.
