Legal Design of Carbon Capture and Storage

Since the 1990s several attempts have been made to combat climate change. Governments use traditional instruments like the promotion of renewable energy sources and energy efficiency. Since the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol new instruments have been introduced like international and national emissions trading.

So far these existing abatement options are not sufficient to meet the national CO2 reduction targets. Until it is possible to use renewable resources on a larger scale without endangering security of supply, transitional instruments need to be designed. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is such a transitional instrument that allows for the use of fossil fuels without emitting CO2 in the atmosphere. The CO2 will be captured and transported to subsoil reservoirs where it is permanently stored. Because of its geological structure the Netherlands is considered to be suitable for large-scale CO2 storage.

The Groningen Centre of Energy Law (GCEL) has analysed the legal instruments necessary to regulate CCS. This book presents a legal design of carbon capture and storage. Thirteen chapters give an insight in the international, EU and national framework for CCS. They analyse the regime for geological storage and transportation pipelines, the financial incentives to promote CCS and the applicable liability regime.

The authors are: Anatole Boute, Jan Bouwman, Marcel Brus, Irene Burgers, Oscar Couwenberg, Kars de Graaf, Wilbert Grevers, Avelien Haan, Jan Jans, Dick Lubach, Lennart Luten, Ko de Ridder, Martha Roggenkamp, Hans Vedder, Mark Wissink and Edwin Woerdman.


About this book
‘[…] a very useful reference point … a useful means to expanding your comparative law understanding.’
Gary P. Campbell in Australian Resources and Energy Law Journal (2010) 145.

‘[…] the editors have produced a high quality volume of both intellectual and practical value. Legal Design of Carbon Capture and Storage offers businesses, governments and environmental policy analysts a complete, richly textured, and often though-provoking look at the new and still emerging legal framework for CCS, a climate change technology of keen interest in Europe and around the globe.’
Sanford E. Gaines in Environmental Liability 2 (2010) 75.

‘[…] a very useful and original contribution in the legal areas around CCS.’
Tim Dixon in IEAGHG Greenhouse Issues 98 (2010) 18.
‘Although the book is grounded in Dutch conditions it offers enough accessible explanation and thought-provoking analysis of common EU themes for it to become compulsory reading for anyone interested in CCS-related legislation in Europe and should definitely be so for those occupied with implementing the CCS Directive in the EU Member States.’
David Langlet in RECIEL 19 (2) 2010.

‘[…] this excellent book provides not only an extensive examination of existing international and EU regimes concerning CCS, but also a detailed analysis of Dutch laws dealing with legal and regulatory issues associated with CCS. Also discussed are pending legal questions and gaps, with potential answers provided in an accurate and clear form. In so doing, the volume successfully provides an account of the CCS process and the issues associated with its regulation both to a readership familiar with CCS—such as academics, practitioners, industry participants, and policymakers—and to an uninitiated audience. […] The contribution of this volume to CCS debates is significant. It fills a gap in the academic legal literature, which had not up to this point produced a dedicated compendium on the legal regime for CCS, due to continuous developments in the field. The result is an original and multivoiced legal analysis of existing legislation, combined with a stimulating assessment of cross-cutting legal issues and an enriching discussion of how they might be addressed within the Netherlands and beyond.’
Chiara Armeni in Climate Law(2010) 461.

‘Legal Design of Carbon Capture and Storage, edited by Martha Roggenkamp and Edwin Woerdman, presents a timely analysis of the emerging legal issues in the regulation of carbon capture and storage.’
Nicola Durrant in 1 CCLR (2011 126)