Cement industry stakeholders seek amendments to TEN-T Regulation

Holcim, Heidelberg Materials, Salonit Anhovo, SINTEF and CEMBUREAU are among 24 stakeholders that have signed a letter from Bellona and the Clean Air Task Force (CATF) calling on the European Parliament’s Committee on Transport and Tourism (TRAN) to support amendments to the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) Regulation to recognise transport of CO₂ to storage via ship, rail, barge and truck.

While transport of CO₂ to storage via pipeline will undoubtedly be crucial in a European CO₂ network, market development depend to a great extent on the parallel development of other modes of transport, such as ship, rail, barge and truck. A source of uncertainty influencing investment decisions is the failure to recognise transport of CO₂ via other modalities than pipeline, on equal footing as the latter.  

Important steps have been taken in the right direction, including the recognition of all modes of transport for CO₂ to storage in the revised EU ETS and the EU Sustainable Finance Taxonomy, but a glaring exemption remains under the Connecting Europe Facility, claims Bellona.  

While storage and transport of CO₂ to storage via pipeline is recognised in the revised Trans-European Networks for Energy (TEN-E) Regulation, recognition for other modalities of transport such as ship, rail, barge, and truck are still missing under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF).  

Transport modalities, such as rail, truck, ships and barges, are key to ensuring equitable access either directly to storage or to pipelines linked to storage. It is the signatories' hope that the letter will highlight the importance of such recognition under the TEN-T Regulation, resulting in a strong position from the European Parliament on this vital issue before entering into Trilogues on the file.