Keynote: The Role of Research in Reaching Net-Zero Emissions Targets

COP28 closed with a historic agreement signalling the “transitioning away’ from fossil fuels by laying the ground for a swift, just and equitable transition, underpinned by deep emissions cuts and scaled-up finance.

Capturing and storing gigatonnes of CO2 annually is crucial for a just and sustainable transition to net-zero emissions by 2050 as CCS technology offers the potential to significantly reduce emissions from energy and industrial processes and enable large-scale carbon dioxide removal (CDR).

Leveraging 40 years of CCS history, new and impactful collaborations between experts in the CCS industry and pioneering research groups, equipped with the pan-European ECCSEL research infrastructure, will create competitive CCS technologies, increase value, and reduce risk for industry and society through strategic competence and capacity building, supporting the achievement of emissions reduction targets.

Since the pace of CCS implementation is of the utmost importance, industrial actors must make use of existing CCS knowledge to secure the necessary investments. It is essential that research and industry work closely together to secure knowledge that can be used for deployment, as well as research new challenges that arise from deployment activities.