Scaling up carbon storage – how Europe can lead the world

In the Norwegian village of Øygarden, on the Bergen coast, the sight of large tanker ships carrying gases and liquids is not uncommon. After all, Øygarden, which sits at the heart of Norway’s energy region, is located just miles from the Troll gas field that supplies much of Europe. Yet every four days, a different kind of tanker comes into view, because these tankers, easily noticed due to their bright, purple colour, are not carrying fossil fuels. These tankers are carrying carbon dioxide.

The Longship project, which commenced operations in June 2025, marks a turning point for Europe’s emerging carbon storage industry. Over 10 years in the making, Longship, also known by its management company, Northern Lights, aims to store up to 1.5 million tons of CO₂ per year, with investment committed for up to 5 million tons per year, equivalent to roughly half of Brussels’ total annual emissions. Collecting carbon from industries around the North Sea, Longship provides a lifeline for European industries seeking to cut their emissions and reach net zero.

With carbon prices due to increase rapidly in the coming years, key industries like cement, fertiliser and waste-to-energy have looked to Longship to take their CO₂ by storing it safely and permanently in rock formations over 2500 metres below the Norwegian seabed.

But as other countries and regions look to advance their carbon storage projects across Europe in the march towards net zero, three structural challenges must be addressed if a functioning European carbon management market is to emerge.

Addressing Europe’s regional imbalance

As Europe’s CO₂ storage market moves from announcements toward delivery, the near-term reality is tight and uncertain capacity. A recent study assessed 33 million-tonne-scale projects in Europe, assessing their likely delivery in 2030. While expected regional injection capacity is about 60 Mtpa, in the European Union this falls to 39 million tons per year, well short of the Net Zero Industry Act’s target of 50 million tons.

But more worrisome is the geographical imbalance of Europe’s emergent storage capacity, which is heavily concentrated around the North Sea. Currently, about 90% of expected capacity sits in a small set of countries (notably Norway, the UK, Denmark, and the Netherlands), leaving many emissions-intensive regions with limited or higher-cost access. Southern Europe, which includes central and eastern Europe, holds just 5% of planned storage capacity, most of which is planned to be delivered by the Ravenna and Prinos projects situated in the Italian and Greek offshore, respectively. As a result, many large industrial emitters face the prospect of having little or no credible domestic storage options, creating a practical dependence on cross-border access to North Sea hubs. 

 Enabling onshore storage

A key barrier to advancing carbon management projects is cost. CO₂ storage costs are highly site-specific, but a clear and consistent cost differential exists between onshore and offshore settings, as a recent study from the Global CCS Institute identified.

The costs associated with onshore storage development are not limited purely to the development of the storage site, because developing and operating storage sites is generally simpler on land, but also since it enables many industrial emitters to access storage capacity located closer to them. This substantial reduction in transport costs could make carbon capture and storage in Europe up to three times cheaper, according to a report from Clean Air Task Force.

The primary barrier to onshore storage development in Europe is political. In many countries with large industrial emissions, such as Poland and Italy, onshore storage is outright banned, while in Germany, it is left to federal states to determine whether they want it, or not. But in other EU member states, change is being felt. In Denmark, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, onshore storage projects are already under development with the first permits due to be issued in 2026. 

For member states that continue to avoid the issue, the underlying question is increasingly stark: do you want your industries to shut down due to a lack of carbon storage infrastructure, or not?

Sharing knowledge

While Europe’s CO₂ storage sector is only now gaining momentum, the practice itself is not new. Data from the London Register of Subsurface CO₂ Storage, an initiative co-ordinated by Imperial College London which aims to verifiably quantify all CO₂ storage injection globally, shows that despite Europe having over 30 years of experience with subsurface CO₂ injection, just 2% of global volumes have been stored in Europe.

 Nevertheless, experience has shown that knowledge sharing is key to getting things going. In December 2025, Denmark issued its first-ever CO₂ storage permit, providing a green light for the Greensand project.

This milestone came just over four years after carbon capture and storage first received formal political recognition in the country.

The Danish experience shows that while Europe is behind, it can catch up quickly. Doing so means we should also learn from the rest of the world, particularly from decades of experience in the United States, Canada, and Norway, and translate these learnings to other regions. The evidence is clear that large-scale CO₂ storage globally is necessary to meet climate targets. The challenge now is for Europe to demonstrate that it can deliver at a scale not yet achieved.