Regulatory Framework For Ccs In The Nordic Countries

Available online: https://pub.norden.org/temanord2023-521/ All Nordic countries have set ambitious targets to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions through various national goals and legislation. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) has a key role in strategies to achieve net-zero emissions through mitigating emissions from fossil fuels and removing CO2 permanently from the atmosphere. This project aimed to analyse regulatory aspects that are relevant for deployment of CCS-based mitigation options in a Nordic context. The report identifies similarities and differences between the Nordic countries concerning CCS regulation, barriers to CCS deployment due to regulatory frameworks, and currently ongoing regulatory development aimed at promoting responsible CCS deployment. Recommendations are provided concerning areas where further development, coordination, and capacity building might be prioritised by the Nordic countries.

Available online: https://pub.norden.org/nord2023-037/ This policy brief highlights the main takeaways from the project “Nordic Stocktake and Visions – Pathways to climate neutrality”. The project has resulted in two main reports: Nordic Stocktake – Pathways to Climate Neutrality & Nordic Visions of Climate Neutrality. The Nordic Stocktake concludes that the Nordics need to accelerate the green transition, especially within transport, industry and agriculture. Countries that have the tools, know-how and institutional and financial capacity can demonstrate mitigation options in all sectors. The project's visions of a climate neutral Nordic society is not just only about emission reductions and technology. The net zero transformation creates opportunities, jobs and spurs investments and innovation. Nordic climate neutral societies are in social and environmental balance. A smarter society with inclusive democracy and long-term policies.

Available online: https://pub.norden.org/temanord2023-545/ The UNFCCC Global Stocktake will be conducted during COP28 in December 2023. The Nordic Stocktake report is intended as a regional tool to support the Global Stocktake process and spur to further climate action, both within the Nordics and beyond. The Nordic region needs to increase the pace of the green transition if we are to lead by example. The report is a stocktake of GHG emissions in the Nordic countries, and a description and assessment of the different national pathways towards climate neutrality in the Nordic region. Many of the challenges on the path towards climate neutrality are not unique to the Nordic countries and solving these in the Nordic region – in countries well-positioned to do so – would prove valuable for global climate action. The report highlights common challenges across the Nordic countries and proposes opportunities for further cross-Nordic collaboration.

Available online: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:norden:org:diva-6010 “The aim of the Nordic countries is to be carbon neutral and to demonstrate leadership in the fight against global warming.” These were the words of the Nordic prime ministers in their declaration at a summit in Helsinki as part of active Nordic climate co-operation under the auspices of the Nordic Council of Ministers. Each of the five Nordic countries has national goals for becoming carbon neutral before or by mid-century. In the Helsinki Declaration the Nordics committed themselves to assess the scenarios for how the different Nordic countries can achieve their respective carbon neutrality goals, including implications for various sectors. The aim of this study is to contribute to making this assessment possible and to highlight areas where co-Nordic initiatives can strengthen the Nordic countries’ aims towards carbon neutrality.

Available online: https://pub.norden.org/temanord2021-538/ Several Nordic countries and the EU have adopted net-zero greenhouse gas emission targets. Achieving net-zero will necessitate CO2 removal from the atmosphere to offset residual emissions that are challenging to mitigate. Bioenergy with CO2 capture and storage (BECCS) is a technology that has the potential to generate large-scale CO2 removal and contribute to the attainment of net-zero targets. The report describes the status of BECCS in the Nordic countries and globally. Significant initiatives in the Nordic countries are mapped. Challenges on the market that inhibit BECCS development are analyzed and areas of cooperation and joint initiatives on the Nordic level that could promote the development and deployment of BECCS are proposed. The project has been carried out by IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute in collaboration with CICERO (Norway) and VTT (Finland).

The focus of this publication is the uniqueness of the Baltic Sea from a legal perspective, and the regulatory voids that result from the multiple layers of regulation this area is subjected to: up to six layers of regulation (general international law, regional conventions, EU law, national laws, local and municipal rules plus a whole range of non-binding norms and other 'soft law' arrangements) act in parallel. However, a large number of rules or regulatory layers does not in itself ensure effectiveness or consistency. When the regulatory landscape is approached from the point of view of individual substantive topics, it is apparent that the norms of different regulatory layers entail both overlaps, gaps and uncertainties, differently for each topic. This publication addresses a selection of topics that are decidedly international in nature, but for which current international and EU rules include important gaps or uncertainties. In addition to presenting a set of legal analyses of topical issues for the region, which in itself is a meritorious objective in view of the relative scarcity of legal studies with a focus on the Baltic Sea, the publication also seeks to analyze the regulatory 'anatomy' of the selected issues in more detail. Through the legal analyses the chapters explore how regulatory gaps are formed, how they are filled, how the rules of the different layers work together and interact with each other in the selected areas. Accordingly, the secondary ambition is to explore, through the chapters, whether more general conclusions can be drawn about the nature of the regulatory gaps and multi-layerism in order to produce a better understanding of how regulations on multiple levels operate in practice.

The articles in the 2019 Nordic Economic Policy Review analyse how the Nordic countries best can contribute to international climate policy. The articles cover topics such as: How can the Nordics help raise the ambitions in the Paris Agreement? What is the effect of national policy on emissions regulated by the EU Emissions Trading System? Would it be cost-effective for the Nordic countries to pay for emission reductions elsewhere to a larger extent? What role should be played by subsidies to green technology? Should Norway put more emphasis on supply-side policies, that is, on limiting future extraction of oil and gas? The volume contains five papers with associated comments which were originally presented at a conference in Stockholm on 24 October 2018.

Carbon Capture and Storage in International Energy Policy and Law identifies the main contemporary regulatory requirements, challenges and opportunities involving CCS from a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective. It draws on the scholarship of renowned researchers across the fields of international energy law and policy to address CCS regulation and its impact on climate change, sustainable development, and related consequences for energy transition. In this vein, the book aims to address issues related to energy, energy justice and climate changes (including CCS technology). Contributors discuss the main challenges and advantages concerning international energy and the forms CCS may contribute to energy security, climate change, adaptation and mitigation of GHG emissions and sustainable development. In this light, the book discusses CCS as a bridge that integrates international energy, climate change and sustainable development. Covers contemporary regulatory command-and-control and market incentive instruments across the local, regional and/or international spheres in-depth and in comparison Reviews deregulatory impacts, modern financing of CCS, liability of the involved parties, and pertinent environmental issues Addresses sociotechnical aspects of CCS and its specific impact on the international arena Discusses the interplay of carbon capture and storage, renewables and the overall energy transition, current pathways to sustainable development