The CEM (Clean Energy Ministerial) CCUS Initiative followed the G20 Energy Ministers meeting (see IEAGHG 2020-IP18). The CEM CCUS Initiative met on the 28th and 29th September 2020, giving CCUS updates from its member countries (the Netherlands, Japan, China, UAE, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Norway, European Commission, UK, US, Mexico and Canada) and key CCS organisations, including IEAGHG, the IEA, GCCSI and CSLF.


This meeting also heard updates from the CEM-OGCI Collaboration. Announced in 2019, this alliance focusses on accelerating CCUS projects with emphasis on key hubs and clusters; five OGCI kickstarters to begin with but with a view to look beyond these five. Action areas for this ongoing collaboration include to accelerate existing and identify priority hubs, to accelerate policy support, to look at a CCUS 'Club' under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement and to further engage with the finance sector and other industries.


The first results of the global CCUS hub search noted that 102 potential CCUS clusters were identified, 15 of these being the most cost-effective starting points in three priority regions (Alberta, North-West Europe, and others in Southern and Eastern Europe). This work recognised that Canada currently leads in terms of the CCUS environment ranking, but that Europe is also generally positive. In terms of the kickstarter hubs, a progress update was given on Net Zero Teeside, Northern Lights, Rotterdam Hub, Xinjiang CCUS Hub and hubs in the Gulf of Mexico and USA.The next steps for the collaboration effort include a CEM-OGCI Convention in Q4 2020, to cooperate to set up the voluntary 'club' of countries to create market pilots on CCUS within Article 6 and to carry out follow up work on the already identified hubs and the next series of countries screening.


The CEM has also recently launched a report looking at the key financing principles with regards to CCUS to help support the establishment of a business case for CCUS and to facilitate financing; 'Key Financing Principles for Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage'[1], by engaging with several Multilateral Development Banks, international private banks, regional / national finance institutions and other investment firms and advisors (see IEAGHG Blog 16 September 2020).


More information on the CEM-CCUS Initiative can be found at http://www.cleanenergyministerial.org/initiative-clean-energy-ministerial/carbon-captureutilization-and-storage-ccus-initiative.


[1] CEM-CCUS Initiative, 'Key Financing Principles for Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage', 15th September 2020, https://www.cleanenergyministerial.org/sites/default/files/2020-09/CEMCCUS_KeyFinancingPrinciplesforCCUS_finalpublic_15Sept2020.pdf