Are we ready for the ship transport of CO2 for CCS? Crude solutions from international and European law

• Published date: 01 November 2021
• Author: Viktor Weber
• Date: 01 November 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/reel.12399

1 |  INTRODUCTION

Carbon capt ure and storage (CCS) is a well- known climate cha nge

mitigation tech nology. In a nutshell , carbon dioxide (CO2) is ca ptured

at power plants or i ndustrial plants (cement, p aper, chemicals, etc.),

transported, and injected into suitable geological formations. Such

formations may be o nshore or offshore. O ffshore, the trans port can

take place through pipelines or by ships.

CCS has two role s. In its first role, CCS is a br idging technology

to reduce the CO2 emiss ions of the power sector during th e transi-

tion to renewabl e energy. In its second role, CC S is used to reduce

emissions from CO2- generating industrial processes.1 Both of these

roles are to be par t of the portfoli o of measures required to m eet the

1.5°C or 2°C goals of t he Paris Agreement. 2 CCS is a recognized

emission reduc tion technology in the UN FCCC’s framework: CCS

came under th e Clean Development Mec hanism (CDM) of the Kyoto

Protocol,3 and it is exp ected that it will also be an elig ible activity

under the Sust ainable Development Mecha nism (SDM) of the Paris

Agreement.4 Further, CCS is also e ligible for support f rom the Green

 1For example, t he producti on of cement – an ingredient of concre te – is estima ted to be

responsib le for 5– 8 perce nt of the world’s CO2 emissi ons.

 2See in parti cular V Masson- Delmott e et al (eds), Global Warming of 1.5°C

(Intergover nmental Pane l on Climate Chang e 2018) 14. This source sh ows four model

pathways to rea ch the 1.5°C goal w ith no or limited ov ershoot. Onl y one of these mod els

does not incl ude CCS technol ogy. Overshoo t pathways are def ined as ‘pathways t hat

exceed the st abilization l evel (concentra tion, forcing , or temperatur e) before the end of a

time horizon o f interest (e.g. , before 2100) and t hen decline towa rds that level by th at

time. Once th e target level is e xceeded, remov al by sinks of gree nhouse gases is

required’. JB R Matthews et al , ‘Glossary ’ in Masson- Delmotte et al, ibi d 541, 555.

 3UNFCCC ‘Decis ion 7/CMP.6, Carbon Diox ide Capture a nd Storage in Ge ological Fo rmations

as Clean Devel opment Mech anism Projec t Activitie s’ UN Doc FCCC/KP/CMP/2010/12/

Add.2 (15 March 2 011); and UNFCCC ‘De cision 10/CMP.7, Modalities a nd Procedure s for

Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage in Geological Formations as Clean Development

Mechanism Pr oject Acti vities’ UN Doc F CCC/KP/CMP/2011/10/Add.2 (15 March 20 12).

 4E Tamme and J Scowcrof t, ‘The Role of CC S in the Paris A greement and it s Article 6’

(Global CCS I nstitute 2020 ) 5– 7.

Received: 13 June 2020   Accepted: 9 April 2021

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DOI: 10 .1111/reel .12399

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Are we ready for the ship transport of CO2 for CCS? Crude

solutions from international and European law

Viktor Weber

Correspondence

Email: viktor.weber@jus.uio.no Abstract

Carbon captu re and storage (CCS) is a crucial element of the e nergy transition that

must take place over the ne xt decades to tackle climate cha nge. In recent years, the

political momen tum for CCS has increased and Norway is r eady to deploy its first

full- chain industria l CCS project. The Norwegia n government hopes that, in time, this

project will expan d into a European CCS network. The c arbon dioxide (CO2) will be

carried by ships for mu ch of the distance. While there are in pr inciple no legal barri-

ers to the ship trans port of CO2, this article argues that i nternational and European

law are not ready yet to accommo date the ship carriage of CO2. First, the m ethod

for overcoming the Ar ticle 6 obstacle of the London Protocol ref lects what has been

politically achi evable and not what would be legally desir able. Second, regarding the

future Hazardous a nd Noxious Substances Convention’s Fund, the a rticle argues that

CCS is a special case an d certain concessions would be warr anted. Third, the article

highlights that the m ethod for including CO2 shipping into the Europ ean Union emis-

sions trading sys tem is not satisfactory.

This is an open ac cess article und er the terms of the Crea tive Commons Attr ibution-NonCo mmercial-NoDer ivs License, which p ermits use and dis tribution in

any medium, pr ovided the origina l work is properly cit ed, the use is non-com mercial and no modi fications or adap tations are made.

© 2021 The Author s. Review of European , Comparative & Intern ational Environme ntal Law published b y Wiley Periodica ls LLC.

RECIEL. 2021;30:387–395.

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