The EU has recognised the centrality of CCS for industrial decarbonisation. In early 2024, the Net-Zero Industry Act introduced a legally binding target of at least 50 million tonnes of CO₂ storage capacity by 2030. Several Member States have reformed national regulations to enable CO₂ transport and offshore injection. These measures reflect a strategic shift: instead of fragmenting Europe’s industrial decarbonisation across national lines, CCS could now become a backbone of a functional single market for carbon storage.

The reason is clear. In sectors like cement, lime, fertilisers and certain steel products, emissions are chemically inherent to production and cannot be avoided with renewables or efficiency. These "hard-to-abate" emissions are embedded in European industry’s structural output. Without CCS, meeting climate goals could require structural deindustrialisation or costly offshoring. With CCS, the EU retains the capacity to decarbonise while preserving critical manufacturing at home.

This EsadeGeo Policy Brief analyses how CCS can support the EU’s 2030 climate targets, while also addressing internal market design, regulatory coordination, and the geopolitics of industrial transition. Drawing on real deployment cases and recent legal developments, it presents concrete recommendations for ensuring CCS works not as a patchwork of national experiments, but as a cohesive European system.

This report is the continuation of a workshop held in Madrid by EsadeGeo, in collaboration with Repsol Foundation. The discussion featured international experts Samantha Gross (Brookings Institution) and Omar Rachedi (EsadeGeo). The conversation is also available on our DoBetter Podcast.