Overview
- The amendment moves CCS and CCU from research to commercial use, prioritizing storage under the seabed and leaving onshore sites to state opt‑in rules.
- The package paves the way for a national CO2 pipeline network and labels pipelines and storage as an overriding public interest, with added safeguards for marine areas, drinking water, and early public information.
- Use at gas‑fired power plants is permitted while coal applications are effectively excluded under the text.
- The measure passed with votes from CDU/CSU and SPD; the Greens and AfD opposed it and the Left abstained, and the law still requires Bundesrat approval before it can take effect.
- Industry groups welcomed planning certainty, environmental NGOs condemned the approach as costly and risky, studies cite a pipeline buildout of roughly 4,800 kilometers costing about €14 billion, and Norway’s Northern Lights project is cited as a working but limited precedent.