In February of this year, the German government adopted a carbon management strategy that regulates the storage (CCS) and use (CCU) of CO₂ for the first time. The background to this is the realization that in certain sectors, CO₂ neutrality can only be achieved by capturing, storing and/or reusing CO₂. This is particularly the case in some branches of industry, such as the cement industry, where two thirds of CO₂ emissions are generated during the burning process of the raw material (cement clinker).

Due to the long unresolved legal situation regarding the use of CCS/CCU plants in Germany, there are currently no technologies in operation that can capture CO₂ or transport or store CO₂ on a large scale. Germany is therefore at the very beginning of the implementation of the Carbon Management Strategy.
 

According to the project lists of the International Energy Agency, there are mainly CCS/CCU projects in planning in Germany to date. Only one project for storing CO₂ is already under construction – none is in operation. The majority of the planned projects relate to the transportation of CO₂. Just 25% of the planned capacities relate to projects for the storage or use of CO₂. Most of the projects are due to be completed by 2030. It can therefore be assumed that around 63 Mt of CO₂ per year will be stored, used or transported by 2030.

The projects planned and currently under construction for capturing, storing, reusing and transporting CO₂ account for around 10 percent of the CO₂ emitted by economic sectors in 2019. From today's perspective, the contribution of CCS/CCU technologies to achieving CO₂ neutrality is therefore likely to be small. As the German government is assuming a ramp-up in the use of the technology in Germany by 2030, there is still a lot to be done, particularly in the area of infrastructure, but it should be possible to achieve this due to the limited number of users. The question of whether the expected high investment and operating costs of the systems will also be worthwhile for users remains to be seen.

Other figures can be found here.