The Gradual Integration of CCUS into National and Regional Strategies for Climate Change Mitigation, Energy Transition, Ecological Transition, Research and Innovation: An Overview for France

Abstract

CO2 Capture and Storage (CCS) is gradually gaining global recognition as a vital technology to complement the climate change mitigation portfolio. Since CCS entered the public arena with the publication of the IPCC Special Report in 2005, most of the international prospective scenarios compatible with keeping the temperature rise below 2°C rely on CCS (e.g. IPCC, IEA). International initiatives gathering many volunteer countries are playing a key role for enabling the development and deployment of CCS, such as IEAGHG since 1991, CSLF since 2003, ISO/TC 265 since 2011, Mission Innovation Challenge 3 since 2015, SET Plan Action 9 since 2016. Quite recently the use (U) of CO2 has entered the value chain to encourage the economic use of part of the captured CO2 as a raw material for the manufacture of new products before permanently storing the rest in the deep subsurface, this is why the technology is now often referred to as CCUS, or CCS and CCU. France has played a key role in the development of global climate policies (e.g. the Paris agreement in 2015), and is involved in the various international initiatives devoted to CCUS mentioned above. It is therefore interesting to take stock of how France is preparing to develop this technology and deploy it on its territory. Are we heading towards the deployment of the CCUS technology in France?