Newsletter - June 2020
The Word of the Secretariat

Dear Members and Partners,
Activities are slowly picking up again and the recovery period is expected to be full of developments in different fronts. We will be informing you about those developments at a more regular pace.
Please find herewith our latest news, our recovery statement, updates on CCU funding opportunities and an overview of our most recent policy and advocacy activities.
We stay at your side and wish you good luck with the restart.
Warm greetings on behalf of the Board and the Secretariat,
Stay healthy,
 
Célia Sapart
Communications Officer
News
  • On the road to climate neutral transportation, our members Climeworks and Sunfire (and partners) have launched their Norsk E-fuel projects.
  • EIT Climate-KIC community member ‘Co-Action,’ a carbon capture project using the natural mineral olivine, opened its new field plots in the Netherlands.
  • A new ‘Power to Methanol’ project based at the Port of Antwerp is being born. It will produce methanol from captured CO2 combined with hydrogen generated from renewable electricity.
  • Using waste carbon feedstocks to produce chemicals. Technology providers such as our members LanzaTech and Avantium, have developed novel CCU processes.

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New members
Welcome to our new members:
  • LanzaTech, an American SME active in gas fermentation technology
  • Mitsubishi Corporation, a large Japanese company working closely with innovative clean technology companies
Save the dates 
Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU): a drop-in and sustainable solution towards a green recovery

The global coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the normal functioning of our society, bringing uncertainties for the future of our economy. This crisis has taught us the fragility of our current system, but also how fast and efficiently our world is able to change at global scale when lives are imperilled. The future of our economy and of our climate strongly depends on the decisions taken today in elaborating national and international recovery plans. In response to the engagement of the EU Commission towards a green recovery, CO 2 Value Europe (CVE) stresses the importance of recognizing the Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU) concept as a key solution in this context. CCU covers all established and innovative industrial processes that aim at capturing CO 2 and transforming it into a variety of valuable products such as chemicals, synthetic fuels or building materials. The development and deployment of CCU technologies clearly contributes to achieving the European Commission’s goals in reducing CO 2 emissions, enhancing carbon circular economy, boosting renewable energy expansion, and defossilizing the industry and the transport sectors.

Unlike other options, CCU technologies provide drop-in solutions that can be implemented without requiring significant modification of existing infrastructures. For example, CO 2 -based synthetic fuels are essential options for sectors that cannot easily be electrified such as aviation, shipping and intensive industries. The rapid large-scale deployment of these technologies is therefore a key component to reaching the EU sustainability objectives, but also to creating job opportunities and to strengthening the European global leadership in a forward-looking sector as the CCU-industry.

The speed of the commercial deployment of innovative CCU solutions will largely depend on the development of a strong supportive policy framework. It is thus crucial that the utilisations of CO 2 receive a fair recognition as much as they lead to a net reduction of CO 2 emissions over their whole life cycle. We call partners from all along the CO 2 value chain (e.g. industries, research and innovation, policy makers and investors) to engage for building together with us the CCU industry of tomorrow with the aims to decrease CO 2 emissions and to move away from fossil carbon. In this recovery period, CVE is more than ever committed to raise awareness and acceptance on CCU broadly, to create synergies and to facilitate a fast and large-scale deployment of this new industry towards a truly sustainable and resilient European economy.
 Funding

  • Innovation Fund
The latest Innovation Fund Expert Group meeting took place virtually on the 5 th of June and presented the latest developments on the evaluation criteria and the related methodologies. CO 2 Value Europe debriefed its members on the 10 th of June. The first call is expected to open early July 2020 with a 1 st stage deadline late October 2020. The latest documents on the first call can be found at the Innovation Fund website .

  • Clean Energy Transition Partnership
The CETP is designed to be a “transformative research and innovation programme across Europe, aiming at accelerating energy transition in all its dimensions”. CCU technologies are considered as part of this CETP. A first proposal is available here . This co-funded partnership will be based on the experience gained from the SET-Plan Actions, from previous ERA-NETs and from Joint Programming Initiatives. We are now in the process of developing a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) through a structured Stakeholder Groups Dialogue that involves various relevant stakeholders. CO 2 Value Europe is part of the CCUS SET-Plan Action (you have recently received a newsletter of the project) and as such will play a close role in co-authoring the SRIA.

  • The H2020 Green Deal Call
Following the ambitious goals of the European Green Deal, the Commission is complementing the policy packages with a specific Green Deal R&I programme under H2020. The Green Deal call is comprised of 11 Areas. Area 3  “Industry for a clean and circular economy”  and Area 5  “Sustainable and smart mobility”  are of particular interest for the CCU development. Area 3 has a dedicated topic on  “Closing the carbon cycle in industry: renewable energy driven reduction of CO 2  using innovative catalytic materials and technologies”  with a topic budget of 80M€ and up to 40M€ available per project (of up to 5 years). Early descriptions of the proposed topics can be seen  here  and we have access to the final draft. We expect few but large volume projects to be funded. The proposed timeline suggests opening of the call around mid-September with deadline end of January 2021. It’s the correct moment to talk to each other and build consortia within CVE. If you have project ideas please send them to us and let us know if you would be interested for a virtual workshop on that. 

  • ERA-NET ACT
The ERA-NET Act (Accelerating CCUS Technologies) has opened its 3 rd call with a pre-proposal deadline on the 10 th of November and a full proposal deadline on the 15 th of March 2021. This is an ERA-NET programme therefore funding comes from the Member States and entails the respect of country-specific eligibility and funding rules for consortia members. For more information please visit the call site.
Policy & Advocacy

In the context of the Green Deal, the European Commission has committed to develop several policy and legislative packages that will impact the CCU sector. This is the case for the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) and the Emission Trade System (ETS). As a consequence, our Working Groups on advocacy for CCU-based fuels and advocacy for mineralization have been working hard to write two position papers.
The REDII has been revised in 2018, but several delegated acts still need to be implemented and the EU Commission has engaged to review the directive by June 2021. In this context, the Working Group on advocacy for fuels has developed a position paper on REDII.
The ETS has been high on the agenda of both Working Groups as well. The Monitoring and Reporting Regulation (ETS MRR) is being updated, so we are preparing to share our views by, e.g. responding to the ongoing public consultation. Our Working Groups have also been cooperating on developing an extensive position paper on ETS .
Apart from these two key files, CVE has also been active on several other matters:
  1. Circular Economy, by responding to the European Commission Roadmap. Here you can find the CVE contribution.
  2. CVE has responded respond to the European Commission Roadmap on Sustainable Aviation Fuels. You can find the response here
  3. CVE has responded respond to the European Commission Roadmap on Sustainable Maritime Fuels. You can find the response here
  4. CVE has responded respond to the European Commission Roadmap on Industrial Emissions Directive. You can find the response here
  5. CVE has responded respond to the European Commission Roadmap on the delegated Regulation on Sustainable finance – EU classification system for green investments. You can find the response here. As part of the Sustainable Finance Framework, the European Commission has developed a classification system for sustainable economic activities with corresponding technical screening criteria (EU Taxonomy). For the moment CCU is not included in this Taxonomy and this might hinder CCU technologies to access finance. We are therefore working on the elaboration of technical screening criteria that would allow the inclusion of CCU in the taxonomy. We are inviting members that are ideally aware of the EU Taxonomy process and with expertise in sustainability and LCA to contact us and contribute to this effort.
C O2 Value Europe AISBL
188A Avenue de Tervueren, Post box 4
1150 Brussels
Belgium
www.co2value.eu
Contact: francoise.maon@co2value.eu