Global effort to mitigate climate change below 2 °C requires near zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The EU and Fin-land have set targets to reduce GHG emissions by at least 80% compared to 1990 emission levels.
One third of the above targeted reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in Finland by 2050 could be achieved cost-effectively with CCS
Biomass-related CCS applications represent the main part of this potential (over 80%), while CCS applica-tions in carbon intensive industries stand for the rest.
Excluding CCS from the technology portfolio in Europe for re-ducing greenhouse gas emissions more than doubles the es-timated price of emission allowances by 2050.
Most technologies for CCS are ready for application but cur-rently there are no financial motivations to reduce CO2 emis-sions. Financial support for early application of CCS in Europe is needed to ramp up the CCS deployment.
Demonstration of CCS in Finland for combined heat & power plants combusting biomass and peat as well as for pulp and paper plants is recommended
Most of the potential for cost-effectively applying CCS in Finland is related to this sector
Early application of bio-CCS in Finland provides cost-efficient GHG mitigation option and thus a business opportunity for emission allowance export
Bio-CCS is an opportunity for Finnish technology and service export (e.g. fluidized bed boilers, hot solid looping reactors, emission measurement)
Demonstration of CO2 hubs in Europe and intermedi-ate storage in Finland is also of importance
In order for bio-CCS to be applied, the benefit from the nega-tive net emissions of bio-CCS needs to be acknowledged and accounted for in the EU ETS and other climate policy frame-works.
Utilisation of CO2 will not directly have much effect on reduc-ing CO2 emissions. However, combined with renewable ener-gy systems it could be a route for providing carbon neutral fuels, chemicals and other products in the future.
Certain concepts for utilisation of CO2, like converting slags and ashes into more valuable products by CO2 mineralization, already seem commercially viable.