Longship Project Launch Event – a dream becomes reality – a celebration of CO2 collaboration.

IEAGHG were honoured to participate in the two-day ceremony of the Longship project launch, Europe’s first full value chain CCS project and the inauguration of the first emitter Heidelberg Materials carbon capture facility at its Brevik cement plant – the first industrial scale carbon capture facility on a cement plant in the world and bringing the first zero carbon cement to market (EvoZero).  Both days were attended by HRH the Crown Prince Haakon.

The first day (June 17^th 2025) was hosted by the Norwegian Ministry of Energy at the Oslo Opera House, and comprised an international high-level conference on carbon management. On the quayside preceding the conference the Norwegian minister of education Kari Nessa Nordtun christened one of the CO₂ ships, the Northern Pathfinder, before it made its way to the Brevik cement facility.

The day began with a song about a dream and closed with a children’s choir. A chance to reflect that what was once a dream is now reality, and the efforts invested over the past 20 years to tackle CO₂ emissions are for future generations.

The conference was hosted by a master of ceremonies, Susannah Streeter, who brought energy, added commentary and moderated throughout. There were contributions from a range of emitters: Giv Brantenberg of Heidelberg Materials, Finn Bjorn Ruyter of Hafslund, Svei Tore Holsether of Yara, alongside the MD and the JV partners of Northern Lights (Tim Heijn of NL, Equinor, Shell and Total Energies). Discussions on enabling markets for CO₂ management, driving demand for green products and developing low-carbon value chains were also covered in this packed agenda.

The Minister of Energy, Terje Aasland, welcomed all the delegates to Oslo and declared that this marks a defining moment and a breakthrough for CCS in Europe, with an estimated 1.2 million man-hours going into making this project a reality. And the theme that resonated throughout the day was that to realise such a multifaceted project takes boldness, persistence and a whole lot of collaboration.

Personal video messages were screened from Bill Gates and Dan Jorgensen (Danish Commissioner, EC) who said, ‘there was a time the nations feared the arrival of our Longships – but not today’.

A panel discussion on Europe’s goals of reaching Net Zero included contributions from Norway, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands. Later in the day, an MOU was signed between Norway and Switzerland to facilitate CO2 transport between the two countries under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement – with 13 organisations present as part of this pilot, including Climeworks, Swiss Air, Swiss Post, Carbon Centric and others.

On the second day (Wednesday 18^th June), the world’s first carbon capture facility in the cement industry was inaugurated with a formal ceremony at Heidelberg Materials’ cement plant in Brevik.

‘I want something just like this’ by Coldplay was sung by a local girls choir with Eurovision star Didrik Solli-Tangen and kicked off the official launch event.

Dominik von Achten (CEO of Heidelberg Materials) hopes that the action taken here will inspire others to follow and want something just like this.

Officially inaugurated by HRH Crown Prince Haakon and with contributions from speakers, including former prime minister Erna Solberg, who commented that it is great to see CCS more popular now than when we first proposed it.

The Longship project launch was well covered by the invited press, so the following are some personal reflections.

Congratulations to the hundreds of people who have had vision and tenacity to see the project from a concept and a dream to reality. Collaboration was the word of both days. IEAGHG were pleased to have played a role in the London Protocol’s CO₂ Export Resolution in 2019, which enabled the project to proceed.

Kudos to Norway for being the front-runners, pioneers, and risk-takers. To not only adopt new ideas and technologies, but also to do the right thing for a sustainable future. This takes political will, industrial and governmental cooperation and public buy-in.

Cement and concrete are all around us, and reducing embodied carbon will have a huge influence on overall reductions. It is now critical that the market embraces low-carbon products, particularly in public procurement projects.

It was lovely to see the pride the community has in its facility and how well integrated the old (over a hundred-year-old cement factory) and the new are.

Seeing is believing – we enjoyed a tour of the facilities and climbed to the top of the quayside storage tanks and the Northern Pathfinder CO2 ship.

I felt honoured to represent IEAGHG at the Longship project launch and celebrate this incredible journey and milestone.