Die Welt reports significant delays to a billion-euro undertaking to link Germany’s Rhine-Ruhr industrial heartland to an undersea carbon storage facility in the Dutch North Sea. The delays threaten a key part of Germany’s decarbonisation plans.

While construction is already underway on the planned Delta Rhine corridor pipeline, which Germany will use to import hydrogen and export CO₂ for permanent storage, the facility will not be operational until 2032 at the earliest. This is four years later than originally planned ― a delay Rotterdam’s port director has called a “threat to the greening of important industries”.

The project is part of an EU-wide push to establish a carbon capture and storage (CCS) industry to support Europe’s quest for climate neutrality by 2050. Dutch energy companies EBN and Gasunie and the port operator of Rotterdam want to be able to inject 2.5 million tons of captured CO₂ a year at the site from 2026.

In May, Germany introduced draft legislation which, if passed, would end the current ban on carbon storage in Germany. Germany is also planning to store CO₂ in Denmark and Norway.