BGS, as part of the European CO2GeoNet Association, has joined CGS Europe — a three-year EC FP7 programme Coordination Action on geological storage of CO₂.

The project, launched in November 2010, is based on networking between 34 research institutes, all with CO₂ storage research experience, and offers a wide European coverage across 24 EU Member States and four Associated countries.

It aims to establish a credible, independent, long-lasting and representative pan-European scientific body of expertise on CO₂ geological storage.

This will build on the sound nucleus of the CO2GeoNet Association, of which BGS is a founder member, and will be helped by the fact that the CGS Europe consortium includes key geoscientific institutions from the existing CO₂NET EAST and ENeRG networks, as well as additional institutes from EuroGeoSurveys.

Quick action

The creation of CGS Europe is timely, because although the European Union has already made significant progress in advancing CO₂ Capture and Storage (CCS) as a key technology for combating climate change, there is now a strong need for acceleration in this process and achieving an even spread of knowledge throughout EU Member States and Associated countries.

This will help support the 10–12 large-scale CCS demonstration projects in Europe in all relevant areas, so as to promote commercial deployment from 2020.

Benefitting from the experience of existing networks, CGS Europe will:

1. instigate durable networking of research capacity on CO₂ storage in all the relevant EU Member States and Associated Countries
2. liaise and coordinate its activities with other stakeholders and existing initiatives in Europe to help define and harmonise CO₂ storage research roadmaps and activities at national, European and international level
3. help reduce the existing gap between the 'forerunner' countries, where CCS activities have been started or are planned, and those countries where these actions are not yet happening
4. contribute to the large-scale demonstration and industrial deployment of CCS
5. support the implementation of the European Directive on the geological storage of CO₂ and other regulatory regimes

CGS Europe will promote cooperation both:

• Internally – between the participants with true European coverage: leading to capacity building between the 34 institutes involved, including staff exchange in common research areas.
• Externally – reaching out to the general public, but also national, European and international stakeholders and initiatives within the CCS community:
  the ZEP Technology Platform, the European CCS Demonstration Project Network, the European Carbon dioxide Capture and Storage Laboratory Infrastructure (ECCSEL), the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA), the European Industrial Initiative (EII), the IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme (IEAGHG), the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF), the Global CCS Institute (GCCSI), the International Performance Assessment Centre for Geological Storage of CO₂ (IPAC-CO₂).

To achieve these aims, CGS Europe will further enhance the collection, dissemination, and homogenization of scientific knowledge on CO₂ storage.

One major outcome of CGS Europe will be a better understanding of the current status of CO₂ geological storage throughout Europe; a pan-European knowledge pool structured to provide relevant information (reports, best practices, country status, etc.) to a wide and varied audience.

Through various dissemination tools (knowledge-dissemination and awareness-raising workshops, a website with an online knowledge repository, publications, spring/summer school, etc.), CGS Europe will offer access to unbiased scientific advice to national regulatory authorities, industrial stakeholders, the scientific community, media and the general public.

The most concrete outcome of CGS Europe, at the end of the EC funding period, will be a durable Europe-wide scientific body on CO₂ geological storage, able to provide both detail and overviews of national, European and Worldwide perspectives and needs in the field of CO₂ geological storage.

CGS Europe: Key Facts

3-year Coordination action

Funding: EC FP7

24 participants: including the CO₂GeoNet Association (11 members as 3rd parties)

34 institutes: specialising in CO₂ storage issues

24 EU member states: and 4 associated countries

Coordinator: BRGM – Isabelle Czernichowski-Lauriol (i.czernichowski@brgm.fr)

Secretariat: University of Zagreb – RGNF – Zeljka Kurelec (info@cgseurope.eu)

Participating countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, UK

Web page: www.cgseurope.net

Contact

Contact Gary Kirby For further information

• Carbon capture and storage (CCS)
• Introduction to carbon capture and storage (CCS)
• Advanced seismic techniques
• CO₂ storage, Sleipner field
• UK CO₂
• Renewables and energy security at BGS