Dear Members, Dear CCU enthusiasts,

In April, we have hopefully opened the path to the birth of many more projects by co-organising a workshop on EU funding opportunities related to CCU with our partner SUNERGY.

Together with INITIATE and Take-Off, already announced in the last newsletter, other two Horizon 2020 EU projects which includes the participation of CVE have started. CO2SMOS - Advanced chemicals production from biogenic CO₂ emissions for circular bio-based industries,led by CARTIF, has been launched in May 2021. Its objective is to develop a set of innovative and cost-competitive CO₂ conversion technologies for bio-based industries, allowing them to replace fossil-based chemicals with more sustainable, CO₂ based ones, and achieve zero or even negative carbon emissions. See the launch Press Release here. On the same topic, VIVALDI has started in June 2021. The project is entitled innoVative bIo-based chains for CO₂ VALorisation as aDded-value organIc acids and it aims at integrating circular carbon- and bio- economy principles to bio-based industries. VIVALDI proposes integrated solutions to convert biogenic CO₂ emissions into added-value organic acids. In this way, not only BBI’s carbon emissions and the exploitation of key resources will be reduced, but the production of organic compounds that today is very energy intensive will become cheaper and more sustainable. Find the Press Release of its launch here.

The Horizon 2020 EU project INITIATE has now an official website to give access to key information, updates on the projects, news and events related to the project and its topics. The project, launched in December 2020, aims to demonstrate the conversion of residual gas from the steel industry into valuable products such as ammonia and high purity urea. Visit the official website by clicking here. 

Earlier this year, CVE, together with members of our Scientific Advisory Committee have participated as expert reviewers in the review of the Second Order Draft of the 6^th Assessment Report (AR6) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). CCU has never been discussed as such in any earlier IPCC reports, therefore our internal and external scientific experts have done a thorough review of the scientific literature on CCU and shared it with the IPCC Working Group 3 (WGIII) focusing on “The Mitigation of Climate Change”. The results of this intensive effort should be part of the final IPCC AR6 WGIII to be released next year. This very exhaustive document as well as its Summary for Policy Makers will serve as basis for policy makers in the coming decade when it comes to climate change mitigation.

Undoubtedly, this period is one of the most crucial periods in EU’s environmental policy. On the 14th of July, the Commission has published one of the most comprehensive legislative package that will guide EU’s efforts to reach its 2030 and 2050 climate goals, the “Fir-for-55 package” This comprehensive framework includes the revision of existing instruments like the EU Emission Trading Scheme (ETS), the Renewable Energy Directive (REDII), the Energy Taxation Directive (ETD), the Effort-Sharing Regulation (ESR) but also the introduction of new instruments like the RefuelEU Aviation for the support of sustainable aviation fuels, the Fuel EU Maritime for the support of renewable fuels in the maritime sector and others. These instruments, some more than others, will influence the development of the CCU industry and CVE works on ensuring that CCU will be properly and consistently acknowledged. A preliminary analysis of the published versions of those instruments has shown that CCU is gaining recognition, e.g. with the introduction of separate share for synthetic aviation fuels, the introduction of shares for renewable fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBO) in industry, the recognition that CO2 that is chemically and permanently bound in a product is excluded from the obligation to surrender emission allowances; but there is still a lot of work to be done to arrive to a framework that is fully supportive of the deployment of CCU technologies and the uptake of CCU products. CVE is analyzing as we speak the ”Fit-for-55” package and will communicate soon a summary of the main points that are relevant for CCU.

On 29 April 2021, over 200 participants attended the online workshop we organized together with our partner SUNERGY “Fossil-free fuels and chemicals for a climate-neutral Europe”. The joint brokerage event presented the various EU-funding opportunities for CCU projects. Experts from the various EU funding instruments offered an overview of Horizon Europe, European Innovation Council (EIC) and Innovation Fund opportunities related to CCU technologies and the production of fossil-free fuels, chemicals and materials in light of the EU’s strong engagement in mitigating climate change. The meeting also allowed participants to pitch their ideas and to participate in B2B and round-table discussions.

The recording and all material related to the event as well as the booklet gathering Horizon Europe and EIC calls for proposals are available here.

The first calls of the Innovation Fund (large-scale and small-scale) have attracted major interest by project owners. Some indicative statistics for the large-scale call show that 292 eligible proposals were evaluated and 70 of them, requesting a total of 6.7 billion € and with a potential to avoid 402 MtCO_2-eq over 10 years, have advanced to the second stage that has closed on the 23^rd of June 2021. More than 20% of those 70 projects contained a CCUS element, of which almost half was specifically on CCU. Many of our members are among those projects and we cross our fingers that all of them will see their projects funded. Results are expected by the 2^nd half of November.

You can find very interesting information on the principles and modalities of the Innovation Fund, the meetings of the Commission’s Expert Group where CVE participates, complementary funding schemes and much more here. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you have any questions.

The Solar Impulse Foundation, created by Bertrand Piccard, aims to label 1000+ solutions to address sustainability challenges and enable a clean economic growth.

If you are an innovator and if you have created a clean, efficient and profitable solutions which has reached the maturity stage of at-scale prototype testing in a laboratory, take your chance and apply here. Do not hesitate to contact Célia if you have any questions on the evaluation process ([email protected]).

Our CVE secretariat is glad to welcome two new members in the team who will both work as Senior Policy Managers: Ana Cláudia Manuelito and Tudy Bernier. Ana started her career at the Portuguese Embassy in Brussels and, over the last 5 years, she worked for EURATEX (The European Apparel and Textile Confederation) leading its policy and advocacy work on Trade and Internal Market policies. Tudy previously led the work of UNESDA, the association representing the soft drinks industry in Europe, on government relations and EU public policies related to environmental sustainability, climate policies and taxation. Together, Ana and Tudy will play a key role in further developing and implementing the advocacy strategy of CO₂ Value Europe while supporting the positioning of the association on important regulatory issues. Our new colleagues will also support policy activities in several EU projects where CO₂ Value Europe is a partner. Do not hesitate to contact them at [email protected] and [email protected].