PhD ceremony Mr. J.M. Holwerda: EU regulation of cross-border carbon capture and storage. Legal issues under the directive on the geological storage of CO2 in the light of primary EU law

PhD ceremony: Mr. J.M. Holwerda, 11.00 uur, Academiegebouw, Broerstraat 5, Groningen

Dissertation: EU regulation of cross-border carbon capture and storage. Legal issues under the directive on the geological storage of CO₂ in the light of primary EU law

Promotor(s): prof. M.M. Roggenkamp, prof. H.H.B. Vedder

Faculty: Law

In 2009, the EU adopted one of the first dedicated regulatory frameworks for the deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology worldwide. Marijn Holwerda analysed the EU regulatory framework for CCS and examines its suitability for facilitating the deployment of CCS in the longer term.

Departing from the growing necessity for CCS projects to go beyond EU Member States’ borders, Holwerda identifies a number of potential legal hindrances to the cross-border deployment of CCS in the EU. He examines the interaction of these legal hindrances with EU environmental, competition and free movement rules and answers the question to what extent they could indeed hamper the cross-border deployment of CCS. In doing so, he addresses a wide variety of topics, ranging from third-party access to CCS infrastructure to the required composition of the CO₂ stream for storage.

Holwerda’s research is one of the first contributions to examine the EU regulatory framework for CCS in the light of the growing importance of cross-border CCS deployment in the EU. It sketches the legal framework within which market players, EU Member States and the European Commission will have to operate and provides concrete lessons and recommendations for all three parties.