Last week, Germany’s lower house of parliament adopted a reform permitting CO₂ transport and undersea storage.

The draft bill, which was approved in August, signalled an important step in the country’s plan to reach carbon neutrality by 2045 and net negative emissions after 2050. Its adoption into law enables the development of a CO₂ infrastructure of pipelines and storage sites. As a result, hard-to-decarbonise sectors including cement and lime production as well as gas power plants will be permitted to store CO₂ offshore, under the seabed, or inland, provided federal states grant permission. However, the legislation does exclusively prohibit the underground storage of CO₂ emissions from coal-fired power plants.

As reported by Clean Energy Wire, government and industry welcomed the decision, while environmental NGOs warned that the reform “failed to introduce sufficiently strict guardrails to protect the climate and environment.”

In an article entitled “Loophole in the Seabed,” the German chapter of environmental group WWF asserted that the amendment “fails to adequately regulate CO₂ capture and storage, instead creating a basis for artificially prolonging the use of fossil fuels.” The article quotes conservation expert Caroline Schacht as follows:

“Instead of only allowing CCS for industries whose emissions are currently unavoidable, such as the cement or lime industries, this disposal route is also being opened up to the gas industry. Emissions from the energy sector can be avoided and have no place on the seabed. This amendment thus creates a dangerous excuse to continue clinging to fossil gas.”

WWF also said that while the newly adopted act exempts marine protected areas from CO₂ injection, laying pipelines through these protected areas will “cause massive disturbances” and “undermine their purpose.”

The bill will now proceed to Germany’s upper chamber, the Bundesrat, for further approval.