Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage (CCUS) and technological negative emissions
On the path to national climate neutrality, the avoidance of greenhouse gas emissions is clearly prioritized. All sectors must reduce their emissions as much as possible, whether by phasing out the use of fossil fuels, improving energy efficiency, or switching to sustainable renewable energy sources.
In addition, ecosystem resilience must be strengthened, and the permanent carbon storage in natural sinks such as forests must be further expanded. However, some sectors cannot fully eliminate their greenhouse gas emissions. This applies not only to small, decentralized emission sources in agriculture (mainly methane and nitrous oxide emissions) but also to larger point sources in industry and waste management.
For CCUS, locations with large amounts of CO₂ emissions, so-called point sources, are relevant. These sites offer the opportunity to capture unavoidable CO₂ emissions, transport them, and either store them geologically or utilise them in a way that permanently removes them from the atmosphere. This prevents the CO₂ from entering the atmosphere. In contrast, greenhouse gas emissions from smaller unavoidable sources should be compensated through so-called “negative” emissions, for example via ecosystem-based carbon storage or technological solutions (negative emission technologies – NETs) such as Bio-Energy Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS). All of this contributes to achieving the net-zero target.