German cabinet approves bill to accelerate carbon storage infrastructure

Germany's cabinet approved on Wednesday reforms to accelerate the development of infrastructure for carbon dioxide capture and storage as Berlin aims to become carbon neutral by 2045 while keeping its hard-to-decarbonise industries.

Carbon capture and storage, or CCS, removes from the atmosphere carbon dioxide produced by industrial processes or captures it at the point of emission and stores it underground.

Industries that are hard to decarbonise such as cement and lime production and gas power plants will be allowed to store CO2 offshore, under the seabed or inland if individual federal states allow it on their territory.

The bill will classify the construction and operation of CO2 storage facilities and pipelines as being in the "overriding public interest", and simplify planning and approval procedures.

Germany's previous government had introduced steps to push CCS technology but failed to get them passed before it collapsed in November. The draft approved on Wednesday is more ambitious.

Under the bill, existing natural gas pipelines could be adapted or converted to carry carbon dioxide instead of natural gas to reduce the need to build entirely new pipelines.

Authorities could legally take over private land, with compensation, for building CO2 pipelines.

Geologically, Germany has around 1.5 billion to 8.3 billion tons of CO2 storage capacity under its part of the North Sea and could deposit up to 20 million tons annually.