1st Meeting of the Network of National CCUS Centres of Excellence (NNCCE)

Overview

The 1st meeting of the Network of National CCUS Centres of Excellence (NNCCE) was held virtually on 30 July 2025, bringing together over 20 representatives from leading CCUS institutions across the Global South. This Network is a joint program spearheaded by the IEAGHG and the Gulf Coast Carbon Centre (GCCC) to support innovation, capacity-building, and collaboration in CCUS across developing regions.

The meeting marked the formal launch of the NNCCE, following a successful exploratory meeting in 2024 hosted at the International CCS Knowledge Centre in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, in conjunction with a tour to the Boundary Dam capture facility. At this launch meeting, participants shared progress updates, discussed common challenges, and identified opportunities for collaboration across research, policy, and implementation of carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) technologies.

Key Findings

Key insights from the meeting highlighted that while funding remains a widely shared barrier, centres also face technical and regulatory obstacles, including limited access to subsurface data, a lack of permitting frameworks, and difficulty building bankable project pipelines. Nevertheless, several centres have demonstrated success by leveraging academic-industry partnerships, developing national storage atlases, launching pilot projects, and initiating national policy dialogues.

A major theme of the discussion was the power of peer-to-peer knowledge exchange. Participants expressed a strong interest in deeper collaboration through joint proposals, technical workshops, and rotating summer schools. The IFC provided insight into how centres can improve the bankability of their projects and reaffirmed its interest in supporting both upstream and downstream CCUS initiatives in the Global South.