CCS Directive transposition into national laws in Europe: progress and problems by the end of 2011

The EU CCS Directive transposition process and related issues in 26 European countries, comprising 24 EU member states, Norway and Croatia were studied in the EU FP7 project: "CGS Europe" in 2011-2012. By the end of 2011 the transposition of the Directive into national law had been approved by the European Commission (EC) in Spain only, but had been approved at national/jurisdictional level in 12 other countries (Austria, Denmark, Estonia, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Slovakia and Sweden) and two regions of Belgium. By January 2012, the European Commission had assessed and approved national submissions of CCS legal acts transposing the Directive in Denmark, France, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands and Slovenia. Implementation in the UK was completed in February 2012 and by end March 2012, implementation at national level was also complete in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Portugal and Romania. Belgium; Croatia, Finland; Germany, Hungary, Norway and Poland had not finished the transposition of the CCS Directive by end March 2012. The process had been complicated by ongoing political debates in Norway, public opposition in Germany and ministerial elections in Poland. More than 20 operating, developing and planned CCS pilot and demonstration projects have been identified in nine European countries. Storage capacity was estimated by CGS Europe project partners as "sufficient at national level" in 17 countries. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.