Europe’s CCS Acceleration

With the EU mandating 50 million tonnes of CO₂ storage capacity by 2030, Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) has become a cornerstone of Europe’s net-zero strategy - yet our latest geospatial intelligence reveals both the progress and the widening gaps in storage readiness, cross-border infrastructure, and commercial certainty.

Join us as we unpack the key developments shaping Europe’s CCS landscape and why relevant and timely location intelligence will be essential for companies seeking to lead, invest, or comply.

The Urgency of Carbon Capture in Europe

The European Union is legally committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to the levels in 1990. This is the central target of the European Climate Law, which makes the EU’s climate neutrality by 2050 a binding legal objective under the European Green Deal.

In early 2024, the European Commission proposed an even more ambitious 90% emissions reduction by 2040 - a target that's set to shape industrial policy for the next decade.

A key pillar of this roadmap is the EU’s first-ever industrial carbon management strategy (2024) , which sets out a comprehensive framework for carbon capture and storage (CCS), carbon capture and utilisation (CCU), and carbon removals. This strategy focuses on creating a functioning CO₂ market, with harmonised rules governing storage, transport, and certification - laying the groundwork for a truly integrated European carbon management system.

2024–2025: CCS Becomes Essential, Not Optional

This year marks a decisive new phase in Europe’s race to Net-Zero. Under the Net-Zero Industry Act, the European Commission has made CCS legally binding by mandating that 44 oil and gas producers collectively deliver 50 million tonnes per year of CO₂ storage capacity by 2030, proportional to each company’s share of EU fossil fuel production between 2020 and 2023.

This groundbreaking legal requirement reflects the EU’s deepening commitment to decarbonising industry and ensuring that the energy sector actively contributes to climate solutions.

By June 30, 2025, obligated producers must submit detailed plans to the European Commission outlining how they will meet their individual contributions. This is no longer voluntary producers with significant historic extraction, volumes are now legally accountable for helping build Europe’s carbon storage infrastructure, in line with the CCS Directive (2009/31/EC).

The Scale of the Challenge and the Opportunity

The scale of the challenge is immense. MapStand’s data shows that planned CO₂ storage capacity across Europe could reach 344 Mt per year by 2030, which is well above the immediate EU target. Yet this still falls significantly short of the ~1,000 Mt CO₂ per year needed by 2050 to align with the International Energy Agency’s Net Zero Emissions (NZE) Scenario.

Bridging this gap will require not only regulatory action but also:

• Massive public and private investment
• Rapid infrastructure deployment
• Deeper industrial integration and innovation

As Kurt Vandenberghe, the EU’s Director-General for Climate Action, put it:
"Having extracted hydrocarbons and contributed to greenhouse gas emissions, it is now time for industry to contribute to CO₂ storage and help mitigate climate change."

Funding and Policy Momentum: A Turning Point for CCS

Momentum is building fast. In 2024, the EU Innovation Fund - one of the largest climate funding mechanisms globally (funded through revenues from the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS)), expanded its support for CCS, CCU, low-carbon hydrogen, and industrial decarbonisation.

At the national level, countries such as Denmark, the Netherlands, and the UK are also accelerating CCS through:

• Public funding and grants
• Tax credits
• Clearer regulatory frameworks

These measures are helping to advance CCS hubs, CO₂ pipeline infrastructure, and offshore storage projects.

The First Cross-Border CCS Project Is LiveWhat once seemed distant is now a reality. The first cross-border CCS project in Europe, the Northern Lights project in Norway, has already begun operations, transporting CO₂ captured in Norway by ship for permanent storage beneath the Norwegian North Sea.

With Phase 1 live, it can safely store up to 1.5 Mt CO₂ per year, scaling up to at least 5 Mt CO₂ per year starting summer 2025. What Phase 1 delivers:

• CO₂ captured from Heidelberg Materials' cement plant (Brevik) and Hafslund Celsio's Oslo waste-to-energy site (~800 kt/year)
• Strategic ship-to-shore + 100 km subsea pipeline feeding into the 2.6 km deep Johansen reservoir (“Aurora”)
• First cross-border commercial agreements signed with Yara International Ørsted & others, marking a true pan-European CCS value chain. This marks a new era of cross-border CO₂ storage in Europe, with more projects set to follow.

In Phase 2, the Northern Lights welcomes Stockholm Exergi (up to 0.9 Mt CO₂/year over 15 years) to accommodate CO₂ from Denmark.

Additionally, a new Memorandum of Understanding between France and Norway, which was signed in 2024, paves the way for shared cross-border CO₂ storage solutions, further breaking down barriers to industrial decarbonisation.

The Evolving European CCS Landscape

CCS has been part of Europe’s decarbonisation conversation for over two decades, but its journey has been marked by false starts, evolving policies, and recent breakthroughs.

• Early 2000s: CCS emerged as a key technology for mitigating emissions from heavy industry and power generation. Early pilot projects were largely driven by academic research and the oil and gas sector, often linked to enhanced oil recovery (EOR) i.e. 2008 Snohvit EOR in the Norwegian North Sea.
• 2009: The EU’s CCS Directive (2009/31/EC) established the legal framework for the safe geological storage of CO₂ across Europe, laying the foundation for future projects. However, the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) carbon price remained too low for CCS to be economically viable.
• 2010s: Several high-profile CCS projects in the UK, notably the White Rose CCS project, laying the foundations for what is today the Zero Carbon Humber Endurance field storage project. The Netherlands, and elsewhere stalled due to financial and political uncertainty, compounded by the global economic crisis. Despite this, knowledge grew, and key storage basins, especially in the North Sea, were identified and assessed.
• Late 2010s–2020: With growing urgency around net-zero commitments, CCS returned to the spotlight as a necessary solution for hard-to-abate sectors like cement, steel, and chemicals.
• 2021–2023: The rise of the EU Green Deal, the Fit for 55 package, and the EU Innovation Fund provided financial and policy support for CCS. The first full-scale industrial carbon capture and storage projects, such as Northern Lights in Norway, began to move from planning to execution.
• 2024: The European Commission unveiled its first dedicated Carbon Management Strategy, and the Net-Zero Industry Act introduced legally binding CO₂ storage obligations, marking the point where CCS shifted from voluntary action to legal requirement.

The CCS Chain: From Emission Source to Safe Storage

The winners in the CCS race will be those who see the full picture: emissions, infrastructure, and storage.

Looking at the full CCS value chain we have some insights from our data:

1. Dominant CO₂ Capture Site Sectors:

The dominant sectors with active or planned CCS projects include:

• Cement & Lime - Produces significant emissions from both combustion and the chemical reaction (calcination). Caron Capture Utilization (CCU) and CCS is seen as a key solution for the “process emissions” that can’t be avoided with fuel switching alone.
• Waste-to-Energy / Biomass - Growing area for BECCS (Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage) which can offer “negative emissions.”
• Hydrocarbon Extraction & Processing (Oil & Gas) - Includes natural gas processing, refining, and upstream oil and gas operations. Many early CCS projects (e.g., Sleipner, Snøhvit in Norway) came from this sector due to CO₂-rich gas fields.
• Fertiliser Production (Ammonia/Urea) - Fertiliser plants emit highly concentrated CO₂ streams during hydrogen production (from natural gas). CCS here is cost-effective due to high-purity CO₂.
• Metals Processing (Steel, Aluminium etc.) - Very hard to decarbonise. CCS is increasingly piloted in blast furnace and direct reduced iron (DRI) facilities.
• Glass – an emerging sector for CCS. High-temperature processes with unavoidable CO₂ emissions.
• Power Generation (Combustion of Fossil Fuels) - Includes coal-fired and gas-fired power stations. Still the largest source of industrial CO₂ emissions and a major focus for capture projects.

2. Pipelines & Transport - old gas pipelines repurposed vs. new builds. Europe’s mature oil & gas sector presents a huge opportunity to repurpose existing infrastructure such as platforms, wells, pipelines for CO₂ transport and storage. In certain use cases this could significantly reduce costs, speed up deployment, and provide a new purpose for declining North Sea assets.

3. CO₂ Terminals: are key to cross-border transport decoupling capture from storage. Not every country or industrial cluster has access to suitable geological CO₂ storage. CO₂ terminals act as aggregation points where captured CO₂ can be collected, temporarily stored, and transferred for shipment to offshore or cross-border storage sites. They allow cross-border CO₂ transport by ship, essential for countries without domestic storage (e.g., Denmark, Germany, some Eastern and Southern European nations).

These terminals are starting to create the physical market infrastructure for what is fast becoming a new transnational CO₂ economy. Terminals allow smaller or dispersed emitters to plug into shared transport infrastructure without needing their own pipelines or local storage. This aggregation helps build economies of scale that can lower the cost per tonne of CO₂ managed. Terminals also help define legal responsibilities and transfer points for CO₂ liability, which is crucial when carbon crosses jurisdictions (who “owns” the CO₂ and the obligation to store it?). In our MapStand analysis the most impactful cross-border enabling CO₂terminals right now in Europe are:

• Øygarden Terminal (Norway – Northern Lights Project): First operational large-scale cross-border CO₂ terminal in Europe. Aggregates CO₂ (currently from Denmark) for injection into offshore saline aquifers under the North Sea.
• Port of Rotterdam CO₂ Hub (Porthos Project, Netherlands): Central to industrial decarbonisation in the Rotterdam port and industrial cluster. Will connect multiple capture sites to offshore storage in Dutch waters.
• Dan-Unity CO₂ (Denmark): Denmark is developing maritime CO₂ transport and terminal capacity to link Danish industry to storage in Norway and future North Sea hubs.
• Zeebrugge/Antwerp CO₂ Hubs (Belgium): Emerging hubs for cross-border CO₂ shipping, linked to planned North Sea storage.
• France-Norway CO₂ Corridor: Future for French industrial clusters (e.g., Normandy, Dunkirk) to export CO₂ to Norwegian storage sites.

Other potential cross-border CO₂ terminals include:

• UK Terminals (Zero Carbon Humber & HyNet): serve as onshore aggregation and export points, essential for scaling up UK CCS while providing optionality for future cross-border shipping.
• Prinos Terminal (Greece): The Energean Prinos CCS Project off Kavala, Greece, is Southeast Europe’s first CCS development. Plans for CO₂ from domestic emitters to be stored in depleted oil fields offshore. Terminal infrastructure will allow future CO₂ imports, possibly creating a hub for Balkan and Eastern Mediterranean CO₂ management.
• Ravenna CO₂ Terminal (Italy): Industrial CO₂ captured in Northern Italy will be transported to the Ravenna terminal, then injected into offshore depleted gas fields. The hub is designed to expand capacity and potentially accept CO₂ imports. One of the few mature CCS projects in Southern Europe, offering both domestic decarbonisation and future cross-border CO₂ storage potential.

These CO₂ terminals are the bridges between capture and storage, without them, CCS simply cannot scale across Europe. MapStand’s geospatial intelligence can help pinpoint terminal gaps, under-served industrial clusters, and optimal CO₂ transport routes, crucial for investors, planners, and policymakers working to close Europe’s emissions gap.

Above is a Geospatial “Gap Map” highlighting regions with high CO₂ emissions but limited or no announced storage solutions which are in the dark black circles. These are the opportunity areas for carbon capture transport to stores.

MapStand’s analysis identifies countries/regions such as Poland, Germany, middle of Europe, NW Spain, and Portugal where significant industrial emission clusters exist, yet there are few known CCS hubs, underdeveloped plans for carbon utilization, and limited infrastructure for CO₂ aggregation and transport to storage sites. While some of these regions are pursuing alternative decarbonisation pathways, such as electrification, hydrogen, or efficiency improvements, CCS remains notably absent or immature in their current roadmaps.

Cross-Border CO₂ Transport: The Next Big Thing

The emergence of cross-border CO₂ shipping, exemplified by projects like Northern Lights where CO₂ is captured in Denmark and transported for permanent storage beneath the North Sea in Norway, marks a transformational shift for the development of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in Europe. It removes one of the key barriers that has historically limited the viability of CCS: the need for emissions sources and storage sites to be geographically close.

In terms of logistics, cross-border CO₂ shipping decouples capture from storage locations, which means emitters in countries without suitable geological formations (e.g., parts of Denmark, Germany, or France) can still pursue CCS. In turn, MapStand analysts predict we will see a rise of CO₂ shipping terminals and liquefaction hubs, creating a new industrial ecosystem akin to LNG infrastructure. This logistical flexibility accelerates CCS adoption in harder-to-abate sectors by providing access to storage even where pipelines aren’t yet feasible.

With CO₂ becoming a tradable commodity, cross-border shipping creates potential for regional CO₂ markets where capture, transport, and storage services can be bought and sold across borders, alongside pricing mechanisms for CO₂ storage which are potentially driven by supply-demand dynamics, regulation, and transport costs. We also see the cross-border shipping creating further incentives for private investment in the CCS arena as commercial models evolve beyond purely state-backed initiatives.

Challenges & Opportunities Ahead

Despite this, there are still some challenges ahead. Until recently, the London Protocol, which governs transboundary movement of waste for sub-seabed storage, prohibited cross-border CO₂ transport for storage. This restriction was lifted in 2019 through an amendment that allows such shipments with bilateral agreements. Projects like Northern Lights are pioneering the legal frameworks needed, but this area remains complex:

• Permitting: Despite ambitious EU mandates, storage licence approvals remain slow in some regions, especially where regulatory frameworks, environmental assessments, or public acceptance lag behind (e.g., parts of Germany, Poland, Southern Europe). Multiple jurisdictions must align their environmental permits, maritime regulations, and CCS-specific licensing. This creates a bottleneck for project development, particularly for cross-border CO₂ shipping and storage hubs.
• Liability: Clear agreements on who holds long-term liability for the stored CO₂, whether the capturing governing nation, the storage operator, or the transporting entity, are essential. Norway’s government currently assumes post-injection liability for Northern Lights, setting an important precedent.

In addition to legal frameworks, another challenge is the EU ETS carbon price, while high, remains volatile, creating uncertainty for long-term investment in CCS. Industrial emitters are cautious, as without a stable carbon pricing or additional policy incentives, many CCS projects struggle to reach final investment decisions.

Why MapStand’s Data Matters in the CCS Transition

At MapStand, we see a data-driven opportunity to help CCS projects navigate these complexities with greater speed, certainty, and coordination. MapStand delivers a highly integrated geospatial intelligence platform covering the full CCS value chain, helping you spot opportunity, avoid risk, and accelerate decarbonisation decisions in real time. Our geospatial intelligence highlights:

• Where emissions clusters lack storage pathways.
• Where dormant oil & gas infrastructure could be repurposed.
• Where cross-border connections could unlock scale and cost-efficiency.

MapStand helps to accelerate CCS project development success by:

• End-to-end value chain mapping of capture sites, terminals, pipelines, and offshore reservoirs.
• Temporal data overlays to track project build-out and operational timelines, aiding Phase 2 investment planning.
• Cross-border flow analysis through our commercial projects datasets visualising safe CO₂ movement across jurisdictions, supporting pan-European CCS hub strategies.

Why does geospatial CCS data matter?

• Policy makers can benchmark full decarbonisation models using real deployment data.
• Industrial emitters can identify optimal transport (pipeline/rail/shipping routes), terminals or partner hubs quickly to store their CO₂ streams.
• Investors & developers gain risk-adjusted visuals for capacity expansion and permitting timelines

Europe’s commitment to net zero is now backed by binding legislation, expanded funding, and real-world project deployment. Carbon Capture and Storage has moved from concept to critical infrastructure, and with less than a decade to scale up, the challenge is clear:

• Can Europe close the gap between current plans and net-zero needs?
• Will industry, government, and technology align fast enough?

MapStand delivers by transforming fragmented public reports and announcements into data intelligence decision-makers can use for actionable and timely insights for reduced risk, saved time and costs when navigating this complex and fast-evolving CCS landscape, turning policy into action, and ambition into delivery.

To explore how MapStand’s CCS data can support your strategy, contact our team for a tailored demo and discussion.