The Copenhagen and Malmö Port (CMP) has applied for EU funding as part of its multi-stakeholder effort to make the city of Copenhagen carbon neutral by 2025.
In a statement, CMP said a facility to capture CO2 will reduce emissions from the Amager Resource Center (ARC) by 500,000 tonnes annually and can help the city of Copenhagen become the world’s first carbon neutral capital city.
Additionally, it said it will be a central party in storing and distributing the captured CO2 to ships that sail to oil field in the North Sea.
The project will be the first of its kind in Denmark and will contribute not only to the City of Copenhagen’s goal of becoming the first carbon-neutral capital in the world by 2025, but also to the national goal of reducing Denmark’s emissions of CO2 70% by the year 2030.
Specifically, an annual reduction of 500,000 tonnes CO2 will correspond to approx. one percent of Denmark’s total emissions.
As one of the first and crucial steps in the project, at the end of October ARC in collaboration with CMP will submit an application to the climate action EU Innovation Fund to receive funding for both the establishment of the facility, which is scheduled for completion in 2025, and its operations.
The amount of financial support being applied for is in the range of DKK 0.5-1 billion ($79.6 million – $159 million), which will finance up to 60% of the costs of the establishment of the facility and its operations for the first ten years.
“CMP is extremely excited to be part of this project, which has a colossal potential to contribute to reducing CO2 emissions in Copenhagen,” said Barbara Scheel Agersnap, CEO, CMP.
“For CMP, this is an excellent example of how the port can play an active role in the green transition and be part of new pioneering climate technology, which can hopefully serve as inspiration for similar projects with CO2 capture not only in Denmark but also abroad.
“Therefore, I hope that we get a positive response from the EU as a first step on the way to realising the project.”
Jacob H. Simonsen, Managing Director of ARC, also commented: “It is absolutely vital that we have such a strong partner such as CMP on-board the project, which will make Copenhagen the world’s first climate-neutral capital city by 2025.
“As an added benefit, we can create local, green workplaces and an infrastructure for handling captured CO2 that potentially can be used by a number of other large CO2 emitters in the metropolitan area.
“Therefore, it is urgent to obtain the financing and have the framework conditions in place in a good and close dialogue with our joint owners and Folketinget, the Danish Parliament,” remarked Jacob H. Simonsen, Managing Director of ARC.”
