Germany throws its weight behind CCS

Government proposes support for deployment in hard-to-abate sectors and commits to ratify key London Protocol amendment under long-awaited carbon management strategy

Germany has opened the way for large-scale deployment of CCUS in its hard-to-abate industries and committed to allow CO₂ to be exported for offshore storage in other EU countries, according to a carbon management strategy drafted by the government. The long-awaited strategy brings Germany’s position on CCS broadly into line with the wider EU and ends decades of political opposition to the technology as the government chases a goal of net zero by 2045. It also marks a major step forward for the development of a regional CCUS market as it opens the way for Europe’s largest emitter to export CO₂ into a rapidly growing network of offshore storage sites in the North Sea and elsewhere. “With