Baden-Württemberg could become first German state to allow underground CO2 storage

The prospective next government of the southern German state of Baden-Württemberg aims to allow the underground storage of climate-damaging carbon dioxide (CO₂), the Green Party and the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) said in their coalition agreement. 

The parties said they will make use of the relevant provision in the recently reformed German CO₂ storage law, and “support a comprehensive and swift assessment and mining-law approval of suitable CO₂ storage sites in Baden-Württemberg.” They emphasised that they would take the interests of residents and the protection of drinking water into account.

Germany last year reformed the country's rules that govern CO2 storage and transport to pave the way for the large-scale application of carbon capture and storage (CCS) or utilisation (CCU) as part of climate action efforts. The reform allows carbon storage under the seabed, and opens the option for federal states to allow onshore underground storage on their land. 

Baden-Württemberg could become the first state to allow onshore carbon storage. None of the country’s 16 states were planning to make use of the provision when public broadcaster ZDF surveyed them in September last year. The state of Bavaria is currently assessing the option. 

While Baden-Württemberg only had smaller underground potential for carbon storage, the decision by the future governing parties could inject momentum into the wider political debate, Fabian Liss of NGO Bellona told Clean Energy Wire. "This puts pressure on industrialised states such as North Rhine-Westphalia, as well as the northern German states, which are particularly well suited to storage," he said, adding that the regions had to start the debate early because carbon storage projects would take long to plan, permit and build. Liss said storage capacity under the German North Sea is set to be insufficient for the country's needs. Export to European neighbours like Norway or Denmark would become expensive.

Years of protest against industry plans to use CCS as a lifeline for coal power have made the technology a no-go issue for many politicians in Germany, Europe and beyond. Yet, countries' goals of climate neutrality around mid-century reopened the debate on the issue of combatting CO2 emissions that are difficult to avoid, for example in cement production. Parties, including the German Greens, are realigning their official stance on the technology. 

The Greens had narrowly defeated the conservatives in the election in the wealthy state of Baden-Württemberg, home to car industry giants Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and Bosch. Public broadcaster ZDF reported that the Greens’ Cem Özdemir could be voted into the office of state premier on 13 May. 

At the presentation of the coalition agreement, Özdemir said that ecology and economy are not mutually exclusive, and that the state would remain committed to its target of climate neutrality by 2040. Neighbouring Bavaria officially scrapped its 2040 climate neutrality target last month.