CCS needs policy to catch up with technology says climate advisor
Pamela Largue
Posted on: 3 November 2025
Bellona’s Olav Øye says CCS will only scale if policymakers step up with clear frameworks, funding and coordination to bridge the gap between technology and deployment.
Olav Øye, senior adviser for climate and industry at Norwegian environmental non-profit organisation Bellona, weighs in on the state of carbon capture and storage in Europe, highlighting the critical importance of regulatory support in developing the sector.
What are the risks of CCS being perceived as a license to pollute and how can industry and policymakers address that narrative?
The EU Emissions Trading System already provides industry with a license to pollute. CCS is the opposite, since it keeps greenhouse gases away from the atmosphere. And if the capture, transport or storage does not function for a long or short period, the polluter will have to pay for the emissions.
Industry needs to be clear about what it needs before it can apply CCS – or other decarbonisation technologies. Policymakers need to look at the whole picture of emissions, energy and resource use and see where CCS and other technologies fit in.
What policy instruments are critical for accelerating CCS in Europe and the Nordics?
For many emitters, public co-funding for CO2 capture is essential in order to reach an investment decision. Some coordination of transport and storage infrastructure is also necessary.
The Northern Lights CO2 transport and storage project has demonstrated that when key infrastructure elements are in place, emitters can connect once they are ready to start capturing.
The European Union’s Net Zero Industry Act obliges oil and gas companies to make CO2 storage available by 2030. In the short term, much of CO2 storage development in Europe will hinge on the successful implementation of this regulation. This is one of Bellona’s key priorities in the coming years.
Which industries are the most CCS-ready? And where are the technological challenges?
Waste-to-energy, cement and bioenergy are among the industries in Europe that are most advanced in their plans to capture CO2. A key challenge is the logistics for transport of CO2 from emitter to storage. However, this challenge is not so much technical as it is regulatory, legal and financial.
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What are the main economic barriers preventing widespread CCS adoption?
The investment cost is significant and emitters are uncertain whether they will recover their investments. It can be a challenge to pass the costs through the entire value chain and on to the final consumer. However, the cement produced with CCS at a cement plant in Norway is already on the market and buyers are willing to pay for it.
Other sectors too will need to build new business models for intermediary or final products. Bellona is working to strengthen the role of public and private procurement in creating demand for low-carbon construction materials.
What would be your message to industrial leaders hesitant to invest in CCS today?
Learn from the early movers in your respective industries and start telling your customers and end users that they need to work together with producers and suppliers on green premiums for the emissions reductions that CCS can provide.
How does CCS fit into Bellona’s overarching mission?
Bellona works for implementation of near-term solutions that reduce emissions significantly. For some sectors, CCS is the only realistic option. Others have more options but often require resources that are not yet available, such as green electricity in large amounts.
It is important for us to look at the whole picture, and we analyse how the technology choices and resource requirements for one sector have an impact on other sectors’ ability to reduce emissions. There are also national and regional preferences. Together with the think tank E3G, we have published a ‘CCS ladder’ that provides a methodology for analysing the role of CCS in various industries.
Olav Øye will be speaking about carbon capture at Enlit Europe, taking place in Bilbao on 18-20 November 2025. Register here to book your ticket.
