Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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42. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment to provide an update on progress to develop carbon capture storage; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41672/23]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Climate Action Plan recognises the importance of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) as a developing means of mitigating emissions from hard to abate activities. Several Irish assessment studies on the issue have been conducted in recent years - SEAI, 2008:"Assessment of the Potential for Geological Storage of CO₂for the Island of Ireland";EPA, 2010:"An Assessment of the Potential for Geological Storage of CO₂in the Vicinity of Moneypoint, Co. Clare";the GSI 2014:“Irish Sea Carbon Capture and Storage Project”; andthe SEAI 2022'Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS)'report as part of the National Heat Study series.

Within the current Climate Action Plan there are actions to be progressed in 2024 to advance the policy position on CCS depending on feasibility assessments.

The EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) has features designed to incentivise CCS deployment. In accordance with the Directive underpinning the ETS, CO₂that is captured and safely stored is considered as “not emitted”. While incorporating removals into an emissions trading system poses significant policy and regulatory challenges, the revised EU ETS Directive, published in May 2023, introduces the possibility of paying for carbon removals in future. Article 30 is amended to include a Commission report, and where appropriate, a legislative proposal and impact assessment, to assess how negative emissions resulting from greenhouse gases that are removed from the atmosphere and safely and permanently stored could be accounted for, and how those negative emissions could be covered by emissions trading.