NorthCarb

NorthCarb will concentrate on North Sea governance and regulation of carbon transport, carbon storage, and regional and cross-border CCS projects. NorthCarb’s main objective is to help scale up CCS and minimize regulatory obstacles in the North Sea by generating interdisciplinary legal and comparative political knowledge regarding cross-border implications and CCS-climate governance interaction. This will be achieved by analyzing rules, policies, and stakeholder political positions on large cross-border CCS projects in the North Sea from an EU/EEA and climate perspective.

NorthCarb's overarching themes are:

Topic 1, CCS and the definition of ‘carbon’ in EU/EEA law: Topic 1 addresses how ‘carbon’ is defined in the EU/EEA, and Public International Law settings, as well as how carbon is defined or perceived by different stakeholders, including energy companies, EU/EEA institutions, and North Sea governments. One of the objectives is to identify consistency or inconsistencies and policy positions regarding what constitutes quantifiable carbon reduction through CCS technology.

Topic 2, CCS and CBAM and EEA Relevance: Topic 2 explores the interaction of CCS projects, EU/EEA emission trading schemes, and the extra-territorial application of EU carbon climate policies as part of the EU/EEA industrial energy transition policy - including aspects related to WTO and international trade law. This analysis will serve as the foundational step towards a theoretical study around the ‘EØS handlingsrom’ theory (maneuver room) nd use carbon and climate law policies to determine how much scope for deviation from EU climate policies EEA countries have.

Topic 3 Imposed CO2 injection capacity building or investment by oil and gas producers: Topic 3 investigates the extent and effects caused by Regulation (EU) 2024/1735 (Net Zero Act) on CCS roll-out and in particular on oil and gas producers. We foresee the importance of understanding how companies develop CO2 storage projects alone or in cooperation with others to fulfill their contribution and the consequences of these different compliance strategies leading to CCS winners and losers.