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Friday, March 13, 2009
Article Type: Reprinted
Brussels has cut another €100 million from a plan to fund carbon capture storage (CCS) plants.
The latest revision leaves €1.05 billion to help develop seven ‘clean’ coal projects, down €200 million from the original proposal.
The money is part of a €5 billion EU stimulus package, called the recovery plan, which was announced in January this year.
Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the UK will each receive €180 million, while Italy will receive €100 million and France €50miliion, according to a document Point Carbon has seen.
The final decision on the money and number of projects is expected to be made at the EU council meeting on March 18-20.
"I’m told this money is now nearly secure, but will be finalized at next week’s summit," said Jesse Scott of non-government organization E3G.
Originally, CCS was due to receive €1.25 billion from the fund, with the money divided equally between five countries: Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the UK.
Each country has a number of possible CCS projects which could win the cash to develop the fledgling technology.
But EU leaders later cut €100 million from the funding, and increased the number of countries to include France and Italy.
This left the original five countries receiving €200 million for CCS development, while Italy will receive €100 million and France €50 million.
But, under the latest proposal, the original five countries have seen their funding cut by another €20 million.
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