National Centre for CCS’s mission and assignments

Being the National Centre, the Swedish Energy Agency is to enable the export of carbon dioxide from Swedish emission sites to permanent storage sites in other countries, for example Norway.

The main obstacle to exporting carbon dioxide is that a contracting party to the London Protocol (e.g. Sweden) is not permitted to export carbon dioxide, waste or other matter to another contracting party (e.g. Norway) with the intention of dumping or incinerating it at sea. However, there are exceptions to this export ban. If the contracting parties take actions to ensure that transportation and storage are conducted safely and responsibly, the ban can be exempted. The Swedish Energy Agency has drafted a proposal for a bilateral storage agreement with Norway, which meets the requirements of the London Protocol.

The endeavour to make storage capacity available took a big step forward on April 15, 2024. Sweden signed bilateral arrangements on cross-border transport of captured carbon dioxide for geological storage with Norway and Denmark.  

Five northern European countries conclude international arrangements on transport and storage of carbon across borders (Government.se)

The Swedish Energy Agency has also been tasked with proposing similar bilateral storage arrangements with other countries, such as the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

The Swedish Energy Agency proposes that those who receive governmental support for their BECCS project through the reverse auction should be able to sell negative emissions on a voluntary market. As for all state aid, if additional private financing is obtained after the aid has been granted, the aid will be reduced by the sale price.

The Swedish Energy Agency also proposes that it is stipulated in the regulation on governmental support for the capture, transport and storage of carbon dioxide of biogenic origin, that when negative emissions are sold, it must be stated that the buyer through the purchase contributes to Sweden achieving its national climate goals and conditions according to the EU's commitments under the Paris Agreement.

The Swedish Energy Agency has investigated how the national ban on dumping and export of waste in the Environmental Code (Chapter 15, § 27) effects CO2 that is captured in Sweden and then transported to be permanently stored in geological formations under the seabed in other countries.

The conclusion is that a deepened investigation regarding the need for an exception (Chapter 15, 28 § MB) or a dispensation (Chapter 15, § 29) from the ban can wait until further notice.

The reason for this is that the potential sea-based storage sites in the vicinity of Sweden that are currently being built or are planned on being built in the near future are located without proximity to "the high seas".

The Swedish Energy Agency has investigated whether BECCS is covered by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and its moratorium on climate-related geo-engineering.

The Swedish Energy Agency assess that BECCS is covered by the moratorium when it is used on a large scale and is deemed to be able to affect biological diversity. It is also the Swedish Energy Agency’s assessment that BECCS in Sweden is likely to have a neutral to minor impact on biological diversity at present, but the agency will still take precautions when implementing a governmental support scheme for BECCS.

Among other things, the Swedish Energy Agency will require that the facility where BECCS is to be implemented with state aid holds a sustainability certificate for the use of its biofuels where applicable.

Sweden has a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Switzerland regarding a pilot cooperation under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.

The cooperation aims to investigate the possibilities of trading negative emissions (for example from bio-CCS) in both directions between the countries. The MoU was signed on the 9th of December 2023 during COP 28.

The Swedish Energy Agency is representing Sweden in the cooperation. The National Centre for CCS is part of the project group together with the unit International Climate Cooperation.

MoU on Bilateral Cooperation under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement - Sweden and Switzerland

Sweden and Switzerland pave the way for international trade with carbon removals

The Swedish Energy Agency was tasked to analyse how the third chapter of the regulation, on injection capacity of carbon dioxide, should be implemented in Sweden. The intention of chapter three of the EU regulation is to ensure that an injection capacity of 50 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year in the EU is achieved by 2030 and to streamline and accelerate the work of bringing storage sites into operation to the necessary extent.

The analysis identified points that have been found to need measures taken by Sweden. Where applicable, the Swedish Energy Agency has given suggestions on how those points should be introduced and/or handled in Sweden. The assignment was finalised and reported to the Government Office in September.

Net-Zero Industry Act (europa.eu)