The EU is undertaking a number of activities on CCS – including addressing the regulatory issues and identifying research needs in the region. The EU is also a participant of many international processes.

ECCP
The European Climate Change Program (ECCP) was initiated in 2000 to provide a coherent and interactive framework for deciding on a range of policies that would enable the EU to meet its Kyoto target during the period 2008 to 2012.

DG Environment launched a new phase of the ECCP in 2005, to review current progress and prepare for post-2012. The Commission held a stakeholder conference on the 24 October 2005 to launch the Second European Climate Change Program (ECCP II) and set up stakeholder working groups set up for some areas, one of them being Carbon Capture and Storage. NGOs will be participating to inform the debate.

The European Commission DG Environment released Communication in February 2005 ‘Winning the battle against climate change’ indicating that the Commission “will review progress and explore new actions to systematically exploit cost effective emission reduction options in synergy with the Lisbon strategy” and stated that “attention will be paid in particular to […] carbon capture and storage”.

ZEFFPP technology platform
The EU has established a Zero Emissions Fossil Fuel Power Plant Technology Platform to undertake an assessment of the long-term research objectives of zero emission technologies. Zero emissions basically means – building more efficient power stations combined with capturing CO2 and storing it (CCS). Neither of these processes will achieve zero emissions on its own and it is unclear whether or not zero emissions is even achievable. The objective of the platform is to drastically reduce the environmental impact of fossil fuel use aiming at highly efficient power generation plants with near zero emissions, based on CO2 capture and storage technologies.

There is an advisory council and working groups established to assess the research needs looking at:
- capture technology,
- storage,
- infrastructure and environment,
- regulation and
- policy and public acceptance.

Research and Development Framework Programmes
On 6 April 2005, the Commission adopted its proposal for EU's 7th Framework Programme, which will run from 2007 to 2013. The Science and Research Commissioner Potocnik stated, "FP7 is centered on innovation and knowledge for growth. It will continue the drive towards the European research area (ERA) - thus aiming at building the internal market of knowledge". Source: Euroactiv

Currently the EU spends approximately EUR80.8 on funding for CCS technology through FP5 and FP6. See table here

The activities outlined in the Commission's FP7 proposal on CCS include:
“To drastically reduce the environmental impact of fossil fuel use aiming at highly efficient power generation plants with near zero emissions, based on CO2 capture and storage technologies”.

For more information see website on FP7 and CAN Europe's CCS Research page