Ownership, risk and the law for a CO2 transport network for carbon capture and storage in the European Union

The transboundary transportation of carbon dioxide (CO2) gives rise to international legal issues not faced in other standalone carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects or domestic projects. While the European Union CCS Directive establishes a framework for CCS, it does not address specifically the issue of transboundary transportation. This will require participating Member States to agree a statutory framework for CO2 transport, which addresses issues at the international, national and local levels of law. This paper considers several key issues for developing and resolving legal issues around ownership and risk for CO2 transportation, an area with limited research literature to date. The legal challenges are examined using a ‘pilot’ project to explore and highlight specific examples. The research draws from a series of CCS industry stakeholder meetings and analysis was developed through interdisciplinary perspectives. In addition, the potential partnership arrangements are explored from a law and policy perspective with an examination of the key issues for these partnerships for Member States. Finally, this research presents a timeline for a legal strategy on resolving the issues for risk and ownership for CO2 transport.