Finland, Norway to cooperate on CO2 transportation, storage

Finnish Minister of Climate and the Environment Kai Mykkänen and Norwegian Minister of Energy Terje Aasland on Friday held a virtual meeting and discussed cooperation prospects in the energy sector between the neighbouring countries, said an official press release.

At the meeting, the ministers agreed on launching cooperation on the transportation and storage of CO2.

The promotion of technical sinks is one of the key themes of the Finnish Government’s climate policy and Finland promotes the extensive introduction and use of technical sinks.

The Finnish soil is not suited for permanent storage of CO2. Norway has more than 27 years of experience with safe storage of CO2 under the seabed.

The Norwegian Government will continue to develop the Norwegian continental shelf and enable commercial storage of CO2 as a service and a market opportunity for emission sources.

Through this cooperation, the Finnish Government will create a framework for the companies that will enable them to transport CO2 to Norway for storage.

“Finland has a lot of potential in the capture and use of biogenic carbon. In addition, we want to make it possible to store carbon dioxide permanently. The cooperation to be launched with Norway will improve the conditions for the clean growth of companies and for the development of technological solutions,” Mykkänen said.

“I look forward to strengthening our cooperation with Finland and to facilitate cross-border transport and storage of CO2 between our two countries. We have capacity to store large amounts of CO2 on the Norwegian Continental Shelf which can provide a service and market opportunity for emissions in Europe. This kind of teamwork is important for carbon capture and storage to become the successful climate mitigation measure we need it to be,” said Aasland.

The aim is to sign a Memorandum of Understanding between Finland and Norway on cooperation on cross-border transportation of CO2 with the purpose of permanent geological storage.

Before this can be done, certain procedures under international agreements must be completed in Finland that will require the preparation of a government proposal and its approval by Parliament.

Norway and Finland agreed to strengthen cooperation in the energy sector.

The topics of the meeting included the Nordic electricity markets and development of transmission grid, energy security and the protection of critical energy infrastructure and Finland's experiences in the use of nuclear energy.