Two of Europe's largest energy companies have partnered on new projects with the potential to curb harmful carbon pollution.
Reuters reported on the agreement signed between Orlen, Poland's largest refiner, and Equinor, the largest operator on the Norwegian continental shelf, to develop carbon capture and storage projects.
The projects have the promising potential to reduce the amount of harmful carbon pollution released into the atmosphere and further support efforts to decarbonize the oil and gas industries. Equinor has been a world leader in carbon capture and storage, storing carbon pollution offshore since 1996.
The energy giants will work together to identify potential storage sites in Poland and offshore in the Baltic Sea.
"We have a lot of potential in carbon dioxide storage. We could jointly work on the Norwegian Continental Shelf but also in Poland," said Orlen's Wieslaw Prugar, per Reuters.
Orlen has committed to decarbonization. The energy company aims to have the capacity to capture, transport, and store 4 million metric tons of carbon pollution annually by 2035 to meet its goal.
The carbon pollution created by burning dirty energy sources is causing global temperatures to rise. Atmospheric carbon dioxide set a new record high in 2023, with levels rising faster than natural carbon sinks, like forests and oceans, can remove it.
Carbon capture and storage technology has the potential to reduce the level of harmful pollution released into the atmosphere by storing it in underground geological formations, like the seabed off the coast of Norway. According to Equinor, these projects have the potential to capture and store more than 95% of carbon pollution created during electricity production.
The energy company has already launched Northern Lights, one of the first projects in the world that allows industrial companies to transport and sequester carbon pollution. Additionally, Equinor is developing an offshore wind farm in New York.
Other exciting options are being explored to cut carbon pollution, like sequestering carbon in bricks or converting it into green hydrogen.
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The possibility of meltdowns ☢️ "The initiative has the potential to serve as a catalyst giving rise to an entire ecosystem of businesses that could grow, create value, and generate new jobs. This is how we fulfill our role as the energy transition leader," said Prugar in a press release.
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